


A Brief History of Scorpius Malfoy

by ClearPlastic



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Friendship/Love, Harry Potter Next Generation, Meet the Family, Mutual Pining, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:28:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 53,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26338777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClearPlastic/pseuds/ClearPlastic
Summary: Scorpius and Rose, a series of firsts. First year through seventh year.
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Rose Weasley
Comments: 29
Kudos: 87





	1. First Year, Second Year, and Third Year

**A/N: This is sort of a new writing style for me, so I apologize for any rough parts!**

* * *

**First Year**

* * *

He's eleven and he's utterly terrified.

"Come on, it's not like they're going to kill you the moment you step inside or anything," Albus Potter – his supposed best mate – insists, pulling on his hand. Scorpius shakes his head and makes sure his feet remain firmly planted outside the creaky gate of The Burrow. He turns around just in time to see his mother shout, "I'll come pick you up at six!" and Disapparate into thin air.

Panic blossoms inside his chest – he knew he should've just listened to his mother when she said this would be a bad idea. He hadn't even bothered to go to his father for permission – the word "Potter" is something of a taboo word in their household.

"Did... did you tell them I was coming?" Scorpius hates the way his voice comes out in a squeak. Father definitely would've disapproved.

"I've already told you, I want it to be a surprise," Albus rolls his eyes and pushes up his glasses, more out of habit than anything. He vaults effortlessly over the gate and motions for Scorpius to follow. " _Scor,_ " he sighs.

Scorpius eyes the gate. It's weathered and beaten and there are plenty of uneven, rough carvings on them. _James was here_. _Hugo wets his bed_. _RW + SA 4EVA_. He looks up at The Burrow. It's nothing like he's ever seen before. The thatched roof has a gigantic hole in it and the walls are patchy. The entire house looks like it's going to topple over at any second. There are chickens clucking along the pathway. Scorpius doesn't think he's ever seen a real live chicken before. He honestly can't decide if he likes or hates The Burrow.

"They know I'm your friend, right? They know I'm alright?" Scorpius' hands moisten at the thought of entering a house where everything from his hair colour to his surname isn't welcome.

"Well, yes," Albus replies after a hesitant pause. He picks at the end of his huge green jumper that has the letters AP on it in lurid orange. "I mean – they know you're my friend. My dad was actually all for it."

He licks his dry lips once and leaps over the fence. Albus gives an excited cheer and hastily leads him up to the house. "Hurry, or the pudding will be gone."

Before he can protest, Albus pushes open the front door and shoves him in first. The smell of warm pie and cinnamon hits him in the face. He splutters in dread and suddenly he finds himself standing in front of a huge crowd of strangers eating a Christmas meal very heartily and noisily.

(This might just be the scariest thing Scorpius has done.)

The laughter and banter dies down as Albus practically screeches, " _This is my friend Scorpius_!"

The first thing he notices is that about ninety percent of the people in here are red-headed. The second thing he sees is that the dinner table isn't nearly big enough to accommodate everyone in the room, so there are mismatched chairs and tables scattered everywhere throughout the house. There are people sitting on counters and sofas and basically any square inch of free space they can find.

Thirdly, everyone (literally _everyone_ ) swivels around to stare. They stop whatever they're doing and just gawk. A middle-aged red-haired man in a horrible maroon jumper starts spluttering on his turkey leg. His eyes flit around in fright and they eventually settle on the tips of his sneakers.

"I invited him over for Christmas," Albus announces happily. He apparently doesn't seem to notice the way some people already seem to recognize his sharply-angled face and white-blond hair.

The silence is agonising and eventually a tall man with features scarily identical to Albus rises from his seat and hurries over.

(He assumes this is the famous Mr. Harry Potter.)

"Welcome!" he greets Scorpius, smiling. "Scorpius, right? Albus told me a lot about you."

He manages a nod and he tucks his hands firmly into his pockets to keep from anyone seeing them shaking violently.

"He never told me you were coming," Mr. Potter fixes Albus with a stern look. Albus shrugs, seemingly oblivious to the unbearable tension in the room. "I wanted it to be a surprise," Albus says. "You're always saying that you'd like to meet him someday, even though Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Ron would probably blow their tops—"

"Why don't you take a seat and, er, get some food?" Mr. Potter hastily gives both of them small pushes on their backs. Albus prances back to his seat and Scorpius keeps close, determined not to look anyone in the eye. He tries his hardest not to bump into anyone along the way, but it's almost impossible. He accidentally stumbles into several people and Scorpius quickly mutters apologies.

Albus settles down in his seat and Scorpius somehow manages to squeeze in beside him on a rickety little chair. His ears are burning. He keeps his head down and doesn't look up again until he hears someone plop something down on his plate.

Scorpius looks up and sees a pretty woman with red hair and laugh lines around her brown eyes smiling at him. "Eat up," She says, gesturing at the steaming pile of mashed potatoes on his plate.

"That's my mum," Albus informs him.

To Scorpius' great relief, the chatter begins to pick up again. He listens intently while Albus does a small introduction for everyone in his family. He recognizes James Potter (bit of an arsehole), Dominique Weasley (best-looking girl he's ever seen, aside from her sister, Victoire) and the Scamander twins (weird blokes, them). The rest he forgets almost as soon as he hears them. Albus eats messily and wipes his mouth on his sleeve. His mother berates him for this and she smiles again at Scorpius' amazed expression when he spoons some mashed potatoes into his hungry mouth. Undoubtedly the best he's ever tasted.

Christmas lunch lasts for another hour, and after Scorpius is done stuffing himself he sits back in his chair and observes everyone at the table warily. He simply can't wrap his mind around the sheer number of people here. Also, the noise is unbelievable. He's surprised anyone can hear themselves talk at all. People are milling about and the food seems endless. Jelly tarts, apple crumble, treacle fudge, and mince pies (Albus informs him that these are his grandmother's specialty). Spoons and ladles bob around the table in mid-air. An occasional pop signals the opening of a Christmas cracker. It's a far cry from the quiet, formal Christmases he has back home.

Also, everyone is dressed in jumpers. Green ones, yellow ones, red ones, purples ones. He looks down at his own plain white shirt and smiles wryly.

"—you can have a go at one of those Christmas crackers later, my Uncle George makes these wicked ones in his shop. Have you ever been to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes? It's just about the best place in the world. I'll take you there one day. Uncle George is opening another shop in Hogsmeade so we should be able to visit there when we're in third year—" Albus babbles non-stop and Scorpius tunes him out as he spots a tiny girl with coppery-red hair and warm brown eyes ogling him behind a holey red armchair. She looks a little familiar.

"—and that's my cousin Rose! You remember her, don't you? From school? She's in Gryffindor," Albus leans over and waves at Rose. She purses her lips and steps out from behind the armchair.

"Hullo." She flicks back her hair and Scorpius is momentarily distracted by the fact that her hair looks like its on fire when it catches the light. It looks nice. "It's nice to finally meet Albus' friend." She says, holding her hand out.

Scorpius stares because what kind of eleven-year-old does that? Only stuffy old people want handshakes when they meet people. He ignores the hand and slouches back in his seat. Colour floods her cheeks and her hand drops back to her side. "How very polite of you," she huffs and marches off.

"Don't mind her," Albus reassures Scorpius. "She can get a little high-and-mighty sometimes but she's mostly okay. Want some more nut brittle, Scor? It's wonderfully crunchy."

.-.-.

When lunch is done with, everyone gathers outside The Burrow, with Scorpius reluctantly following. He somehow gets roped into an impromptu game of Quidditch with the rest of the Weasley-Potter clan (he's begun to call them that in his head) by Albus. He can tell by the exasperated looks his older cousins shoot Albus that he's certainly not wanted but Albus absolutely does not take no for an answer.

A small ball of resentment rises in his chest as he's picked last for teams (he goes into Teddy Lupin's team) and he's determined to give it all—even though he's never actually played Seeker before, but he figures it shouldn't be that hard. They play on a small expanse of grass some distance away from The Burrow. He can see the rest of Ottery St. Catchpole from here and he admits to himself that it's a nice place to play Quidditch. Some of the adults gather around on the ground to watch. They get a small melon to act as their Quaffle, and Albus' Aunt Hermione has charmed several apples for Bludgers and a walnut for the Snitch.

Ten minutes later, the struggling walnut is trapped beneath his fingers and everyone is gobsmacked. He touches down on the ground smugly and notices Mr. Potter looking at him with interest. The adults applaud and cheer but the Albus' cousins now have ugly looks on their faces. Albus flies over on his teetering Nimbus and slaps him on the back. Teddy Lupin gives him an approving punch to the shoulder, and Scorpius smiles for the first time since he arrives at The Burrow.

Nine games later (Scorpius catches the Snitch six out of nine times), the opposing team look positively murderous. Scorpius' own team are laughing and hollering in appreciation. Rose Weasley, who's on his team, zips by unsteadily and says, "You're doing an amazing job!"

Scorpius pauses before allowing himself a small grin. "Thanks."

.-.-.

Scorpius is sort of, maybe, having fun with the Weasley-Potter clan as they toss small fireworks at gnomes and watch them squeal because their heads catch on fire. When it's six o' clock, his mother Apparates in and calls for Scorpius. He runs over to her with his pockets brimming full of small toys and candy from Christmas crackers (Albus was right, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' Christmas crackers were fantastic).

His mother kisses him on the top of his head ("Mum!" he complains). "Did you have good time?" she asks, but her smile is tense and strained.

Scorpius looks back at The Burrow. The party is still going strong.

"It was okay," he shrugs non-committally.

(This is a huge fib. He doesn't think he wants to leave.)

He looks up and sees Mr and Mrs Potter coming over. Mrs Potter has a pink streamer in her hair and she's pink in the face.

"It was wonderful to have your son over, Astoria," Mr Potter smiles tentatively. "He's a very talented Quidditch player." Scorpius flushes at this unexpected compliment.

"Yes, it was a real pleasure. Do come again," Mrs Potter nods and shoots Scorpius a wink.

His mother looks like a deer caught in headlights. "Thank you very much," she bobs her head once and grips his forearm. Scorpius feels the familiar sensation of being squeezed into a small tube as his mother Disapparates with him.

.-.-.

When he's back in school, the first thing Albus does when they're in double Potions together is demand, "Well? Did you like Christmas at my place?"

Scorpius painstakingly copies down a diagram from his copy of _Potions for Beginners_. He nudges Albus and says, "It was alright, I suppose." He's careful to whisper in an undertone. Professor Slughorn has surprisingly sharp hearing.

Albus is outraged. "Just alright? Christmas with the Potter-Weasley's is always an experience you'll never forget."

"It certainly was an experience I'll never forget," Scorpius snorts. "What were you thinking, announcing me to your family like that? I'm lucky they didn't run me out of the house with pitchforks."

Albus laughs a little and dips his quill into an inkwell. "I don't see what's so unusual about a Potter and a Malfoy being friends, really. I remember how outraged my grandpa was when I told them I was friends with you. My parents are okay with it, though. They kept going on and on about how good you were at Quidditch. Ever thought about trying out for the team next year?"

Scorpius considers this. "I probably will. My dad wants me to, anyway. You?"

"James will take the mickey if I don't at least try," Albus shrugs. "He can't wait until it's me versus him when I make the team. Teddy was captain when he was in his seventh year. You remember Teddy, right?"

Scorpius nods. "Yeah. I like him."

He waits for the ink on his parchment to dry properly (he learned this lesson the hard way a few months ago when he'd ruined a perfectly good Transfiguration essay because the ink was still wet) before turning it over.

"Everyone does. My cousins and I are betting that he'll get married to Victoire in three years or so. You can come to the wedding if you want. Hey, want to come over again? For holidays, I mean. You can come over every Christmas too, if you want," Albus' tongue sticks out in concentration as he carefully jots down Professor Slughorn's notes.

Scorpius raises an eyebrow. "Er – okay. And stick your tongue back in, mate, that looks disgusting," he snorts with laughter as Albus' eyes widen in indignation. Albus opens his mouth to retaliate but a particularly stern look from Slughorn shuts them both up.

.-.-.

The second time he sees her, she's tucked into this small corner of the library, a heavy book propped up on her lap and concentrating so hard she doesn't even notice when Scorpius accidentally stumbles by.

(There's a reason why he's in the library. His latest Potions assignment is killing him and he figured he'd drop by for a bit the next time he had some free time.)

There's a half-finished cup of chocolate by her side and her hair is pinned back. She's tucked her legs up on the chair and Scorpius quickly backs away before she realizes he's there.

A few weeks later, he eventually figures out that that's sort of that Weasley girl's spot. Which is plenty weird, if you ask him, because what kind of eleven year old likes to read?

Scorpius can't wrap his head around it.

.-.-.

It's History of Magic with the Gryffindors and Scorpius is bored to death because Professor Binns? Just about the worst bloody teacher in the world.

Beside him, Albus is already snoring. He's sprawled all over his desk and his glasses are askew. Nearly everyone in the classroom is. Except for one glaring exception.

"Professor Binns!" everyone silently groans as Rose Weasley's hand shoots up in the air for the tenth time that period. "Could you please elaborate more on the Goblin Wars? I'd like to know why Urik the Unclean overthrew his siblings and how he led the Great Goblin Massacre of 1250..."

Scorpius is sitting in the far back, so all he can see is a sliver of that Weasley girl's back. He rolls his eyes slightly when he sees her enthusiastic nodding as Professor Binns drones on.

Morag Zabini, a fellow Slytherin, nudges Scorpius in his side. "What a disgusting little swot," he sneers. "I bet she's the daughter of that Granger woman. My father told me all about her."

He whispers this, careful not to let Albus hear. "I bet she'll want to get top in all exams and be every teacher's pet."

Scorpius feels slightly uncomfortable and shuffles in his seat. "Yeah," he finally says after Morag shoots him a suspicious glare. Because, you know, he's a _Malfoy_ , he's supposed to hate all Weasleys. It's practically in his genetic code.

(That's what everyone says, anyway.)

.-.-.

He decides that he likes Astronomy. It's fun, laying down underneath telescopes and trying to decipher patterns from planets, stars and constellations.

He's sitting a little ways from Rose Weasley (he notices that she doesn't really have a ton of friends) on a warm March night. Professor Sinistra weaves carefully between students and tells everyone to look for Mars.

Scorpius can't help but snicker a little when he sees Warrington Nott – another fellow Slytherin – accidentally-on-purpose bump into her. She jerks forward and yowls in pain when her eye collides painfully with the telescope. Warrington Nott jeers and Albus jumps up from beside Scorpius, his face reddening with anger. "I told you, no picking on my cousins, even if they're Gryffindors!" Albus shouts. He looks positively microscopic next to the huge bulk of Warrington.

Warrington shoves past Albus and lumbers away. Albus rushes over to Rose, who's rubbing her eye. "Sorry about that. Warrington's a bit of a plonker."

For some strange reason, she shoots him this absolutely poisonous glare after she massages her eye. "I'm _fine_."

Scorpius feels a little uncomfortable.

(He thinks she might have heard him snicker.)

Oh well. She's not _his_ cousin. Nor his friend. He's free to laugh all he wants.

.-.-.

Quidditch quickly becomes his new favourite sport. Only second-years and above get to try out, but Albus tells him his dad got into the team when he was only a first year. He's got his fingers crossed. Madam Saltzman, the Quidditch coach, tells him he's got natural talent. Everyone seems convinced that he's going to make the team next year.

(Including himself.)

.-.-.

He passes all his exams with flying colours.

(Rose Weasley still beats him in every subject, though.)

* * *

**Second Year**

* * *

It's the first of September and he nearly misses the Hogwarts Express. He boards it just in time and he finds himself relieved he's going back to school after a rather boring summer back at home at the Malfoy Manor. Albus asked him multiple times to come over to the Potter Manor but his mum absolutely refused.

Most of the compartments are already full and he's looking for Albus (because, you know, he has other Slytherin friends but he prefers Albus). He finally finds him, but he's seated with all his cousins. Their compartment barely looks big enough to contain all of them.

"Scor!" Albus leaps up and grins widely. "Good to see you, mate."

Several others mumble half-hearted hellos. Scorpius really isn't surprised. He sees James Potter and Dominique Weasley (she smiles at him and he blushes a little. She's really pretty, alright? Even if she _is_ a year older than him) and Fred Weasley. The Scamander twins wave dreamily. Rose Weasley is tucked into a far corner.

"Come on, sit down. We were just getting started on a game of Exploding Snap," he says cheerfully. Scorpius thinks Albus is trying much too hard to make Scorpius fit in with his extensive family. He backs out of the compartment, shaking his head. "No, it's alright. I'll just go find another compartment," he disappears down the corridor, sighing a little. He goes into the first empty compartment he can find and settles himself in for a long, lonely train ride.

Five minutes pass, someone knocks raptly on his compartment door. He stands up to open the door and he finds Rose Weasley outside, looking purposeful.

"Yes?" Scorpius raises an eyebrow, nonplussed. "Does Albus want you to tell me something?"

"No," she slips right past him and sits down. Scorpius finds this vaguely confusing. "I just thought you might need some company."

For a moment Scorpius is tempted to say, "I don't need company from a _Weasley_ " accompanied with the famous Malfoy sneer but he doesn't. Instead he shrugs and takes his seat.

(None of this makes sense.)

There's a slight awkward pause as Scorpius stares at her questioningly. Rose leans against the headboards and starts talking about Quidditch. He supposes it's okay thing to talk about.

An hour later, he discovers several things about Rose Weasley:

One, she talks a lot. Like, a _lot_.

Two, Rose wants to try out for Quidditch this year too.

Three, Rose wants to be the first ever person to take all eighteen subjects for her NEWTs. And she's determined to get Os for all of them. Also, she'd like to be Minister of Magic one day.

When Albus finally shows up at his compartment, he's convinced that Rose Weasley is completely batty and scarily ambitious. She uses big, complex words when she speaks and sometimes she talks way too fast.

But talking to her isn't all that bad, he supposes.

(It's actually sort of nice, but Scorpius will never admit that.)

.-.-.

Quidditch tryouts are held two weeks into school.

Albus and Scorpius show up ten minutes early to the Quidditch Pitch. A tight ball of nervousness coils in his stomach when he sees other players — all of them bigger than him — stretching and doing practice flights around the pitch. Most of the people trying out are third-year or older.

Albus pushes up his spectacles, looking distinctly green.

(Scorpius doesn't feel too good himself, actually.)

The only other second-year is a really tall, scrawny boy named Toby Arlington. He walks over, recognizing them. "Hello. Trying out?" he asks, rubbing his hands over the handle of his worn broomstick.

Scorpius thinks this is a stupid question (what else would he be doing here with a broomstick in his hand?) but nods anyway. "What position?"

"Beater," Toby replies. His brown hair is windswept. "You?"

"Seeker," Scorpius says succinctly.

"Chaser," Albus manages. The three boys nod at each other and wait silently.

The captain, a hard-muscled seventh year named Spartacus Flint wants Chasers to try out first. Albus moves robotically over. Scorpius and Toby watch from the ground as Albus does some spectacular flying and goal-scoring. He can tell by the look on Spartacus Flint's face that he's impressed. The sick feeling in his stomach grows. He doesn't think he'll be able to stand it if Albus makes the team but he doesn't, as selfish as that sounds.

An hour later, all three of the second-years make the team.

(Toby sort of becomes their friend after that.)

.-.-.

Rose passes by him in the fourth-floor corridor one day and she walks over. "Congratulations. I heard."

Scorpius doesn't know how to answer. For one, several of his Slytherin friends are beside him. Morag Zabini looks at him incredulously. "Do you know her?" he asks, not bothering to lower his voice for Rose. Violet Parkinson shoots Rose a particularly ugly glare. Toby Arlington seems curious. Scorpius doesn't have Albus here to back him up now so he just looks straight ahead and says, "No."

Rose flushes and hurries away with her head down. His Slytherin friends roar with laughter.

She doesn't try to talk to him again for the next three months.

(Whatever. It's her fault for assuming they were friends after one measly conversation.)

.-.-.

His first kiss goes like this –

He thinks he might like Nina Carrow. She's nice enough (to him, at least), her eyes are a pretty shade of green and she's the only second-year he knows who already has a substantial chest. This, of course, makes for a huge plus.

They've been talking, he supposes. Mostly she comes on to him and talks about homework or new spells or whatever, and he doesn't push her away, because he's now the envy of all third, second and first year boys everywhere. And that's bloody awesome.

They're walking along the Great Lake on a Saturday morning after breakfast (Nina suggested it) and he notices how extra-glossy and pouty her lips look today. So when she suddenly stops walking and looks up at him through mascara-coated eyelashes (Scorpius thinks she might've learned how to do that from Teen Witch) he leans down and kisses her. Her lips are soft, and she tastes of cherry chapstick and syrup.

He decides he likes it.

(She becomes his girlfriend after that. They might not be the most popular couple, but they're one of the most talked about.)

.-.-.

Toby groans when he finds out that Scorpius is dating Nina Carrow. "You are so bloody lucky," he says. "She's the prettiest girl in our year. I can't believe she agreed to go out with _you_."

He says this jokingly, and Scorpius smirks (he discovered only recently that girls quite like that) and sprawls all over the green sofas of the Slytherin common room. "Well, some blokes are just irresistible," he stretches himself and gets to work on a DADA assignment. He feels someone poke him in the side and he looks up. Nina approaches, wearing a smile.

"Just wanted to say goodnight, Scor," she says sweetly, and pecks him on the lips. Scorpius smiles when this gets much attention from everyone in the common room. Nina skips away and Toby gives him an admiring glance.

"D'you suppose girls will like me?" Toby questions off-handedly, pursing his lips and looking up at the high vaulted ceiling of their common room. Scorpius gives a laugh and raises an eyebrow.

"Why're you asking me that? I'm not some bloody Agony Aunt."

"Just humour me for a moment, will you?" Toby's cheeks grow red.

"Is there any girl in particular you're talking about?"

"Well... there's one, but she's in Gryffindor, so..." Toby places his hands on the back of his head and kicks his feet up.

"Do I know her?"

Toby blushes further and Scorpius stops himself from rolling his eyes. "Yeah. I really like her."

"Arlington, you're such a sodding _girl_ , you know that?"

Toby throws a punch at his shoulder (and it kind of hurts too. Hey, he's a Beater, alright?) and he looks pretty ticked off. "Forget I asked."

(Scorpius thinks this whole thing is hilarious.)

.-.-.

His first Quidditch match is against Hufflepuff.

The morning of the match, Toby, Albus and Scorpius huddle together at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall for breakfast. Toby is reciting game plans and flight formations, Albus is completely silent, and Scorpius feels like he's going to throw up all over his bowl of cornflakes.

His Quidditch robes feel too big and foreign on him. His new Speedflight 6000 (his father had it sent over the minute he heard his son made the team) is gleaming in the bright sunlight and he _should_ feel excited, but all he can hear now is the huge crowd outside cheering. If he slips up, he'll make a fool of himself in front of the entire student population of Hogwarts.

Then his name is announced and he finds himself up in the air, flying, flying and suddenly all his nerves are gone and the only thing on his mind is finding that Snitch.

Hufflepuff's Seeker is a tiny fifth-year girl. Scorpius' eyes flit around and he flies as high as he can go. He's aware of the commentator screaming, "And it's ten zero to Slytherin!" and adrenaline is pumping through his veins.

He _loves_ this.

He sees Albus score an amazing goal and he cheers silently, still flying about. The Snitch is nowhere to be found.

Five minutes later, he spots a glint of gold somewhere twenty feet below him and he immediately rockets over with his heart somewhere in his throat. Hufflepuff's Seeker quickly follows suit. There's a brief struggle between them for the Snitch. She's not much bigger than him but she's just as fast (maybe faster). Then his fingers finally curl around the desperate Snitch and the game is over.

"Slytherin's Seeker has caught the Snitch and the game is over in fifteen minutes!" the commentator screams and Scorpius touches down. He hollers in delight and is tackled by all members of his team. "Slytherin wins a hundred and eighty to twenty!"

(He decides he loves Quidditch victory parties.)

.-.-.

Albus invites both Toby and Scorpius over for Christmas this year. Scorpius is sort of, maybe, looking forward to Christmas at the Potter-Weasleys.

(What? He had fun last time, okay?)

It takes a lot more convincing than last year for his mother to say yes. "I take it that your father doesn't know?" she sighs as he prepares for Side-Along Apparition.

"You know how he is with the Potters and Weasleys," Scorpius mutters, feeling guilty. "He wouldn't have said yes even if I asked him. It's only for one day, anyway."

When he reaches The Burrow, Toby and Albus are already there, sitting on the fence and waiting for him. Scorpius vaults over the rickety fence. "Merry Christmas!" Toby greets. Scorpius sniggers at his festive Christmas scarf and Albus leads them both into The Burrow.

He likes to think that he's more welcome this year. The Christmas meal Albus' grandmother prepares is impressive. Toby and Scorpius stuff himself silly. Toby is in the middle of munching on some ginger snaps when Rose and one of her friends (Scorpius recognizes her from Hogwarts) hop over to their side of the table to sit and eat. Toby takes one look at them and chokes.

"Merry Christmas," Rose greets, ignoring Toby's desperate wheezes. Albus helpfully pats him on the back. "I hope you don't mind us sitting over here – Uncle George spilled some of that nauseating Portable Swamp stuff all over our chairs." Scorpius can't help but notice that she looks at anywhere but him and he's amazed by her ability to hold a grudge even after three months. She really is batty.

"Of course you can," Toby says far too quickly. Scorpius and Albus both shoot him perplexed glances.

"Oh, this is my friend Caitlyn," Rose gestures towards her companion. She has red cheeks, long straw-blonde hair and she smiles at all of them a little shyly.

"Nice to meet you. Rose invited me over for Christmas," she says, and takes a seat next to Toby. He lets out an audible squeak.

Something clicks in Scorpius' head. He gives Albus a knowing glance and does this obvious nudge-nudge-wink-wink thing that has Toby protesting in horror. Albus' face clears.

"Oh!" Albus says, and lets out a series of titters and guffaws. Toby looks as though he's ready to sink through the floor.

"What?" Rose narrows her eyes, helping herself to some black pudding that Scorpius can't identify. Caitlyn looks politely bewildered at their behaviour.

"Nothing!" Scorpius and Albus chorus. Toby stares a hole through his loaded plate and doesn't look up again until Rose and Caitlyn eventually leave.

"Could you _be_ more obvious?" Toby whines.

"Look who's talking," Scorpius snorts into his pudding.

"Caitlyn, eh?" Albus wrinkles his nose.

"Just shut up," Toby grumbles, running his hands over his brown hair and freckled face. "I hate you two."

Scorpius and Albus laugh themselves stupid.

.-.-.

After a huge Christmas meal, Scorpius joins in the rest of the Weasley-Potter clan for Quidditch. He learns from Albus that this is a sort of tradition of theirs. This time, he's one of the first to be picked for teams (as are Albus and Toby) and he's feeling pretty good about himself. His team wins several games and they eventually stop playing when it gets too dark to see.

Rose Weasley marches up to him the moment he touches down and smiles reluctantly. "You're a really good Quidditch player. And I never did congratulate you on your remarkable victory a few weeks ago, so congratulations."

Scorpius smiles back. "Thanks, Weasley."

"My name is _Rose_."

"Whatever, _Weasley,_ " he throws a grin over his shoulder as he walks away. For some reason, the irate look on her face cheers him up immensely.

.-.-.

He joins the Weasley-Potters on the train ride back to Hogwarts after Christmas Break. They don't protest when Albus tugs him in, and that's good enough for him, even though James Potter still looks sort of wary.

(Exploding Snap is far more fun than he ever realized.)

.-.-.

Two weeks later, he finds out from some reliable sources that Nina Carrow's been sighted kissing some third-year named Neil Bulstrode.

He breaks up with her the day after and wonders why he doesn't feel much when she cries a little.

He finds a new girlfriend a few weeks later.

.-.-.

Scorpius Malfoy is really tired.

In between classes, homework, and Quidditch training, he's barely got any time left to breathe. It's late at night, he's just come back from some brutal Quidditch practice, and he still has this gigantic two foot long Transfiguration essay due tomorrow. Professor McGonagall will skin him alive if he doesn't hand it in. She might be clocking in at a hundred but she still makes students wet their pants.

He's been agonizing over this essay for about half-an-hour (Albus and Toby aren't faring much better). None of the words on his Transfiguration textbook make any sense and his quill has been hovering over his parchment for fifteen minutes. Nothing comes out.

"Bloody hell!" he yells in frustration and he throws his quill away. Toby is already spread-eagled on his back, snoring on the couch. Albus has scrawled one sentence on his parchment. The common room is almost empty and it's nearing eleven. "I'm giving up," Scorpius announces, and trudges upstairs into his dorm to sleep because he can barely keep his eyes open.

The next morning, he oversleeps.

Scorpius skips breakfast completely, and is furiously scribbling out whatever bollocks he can think of for his essay while he's walking in the hallways when someone interrupts him.

"What's wrong?"

He looks up from his ragged parchment and finds Rose Weasley looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing," he mumbles. "Why?"

"Your shirt is buttoned all wrong, your tie is haphazard and you look horrible," she says bluntly.

"Thanks a lot," he snaps. "I just had the worst night's sleep ever, I woke up thirty minutes late, I'm bloody hungry because I skipped breakfast and I have this stupid Transfiguration essay due in an hour."

Rose contemplates this for a while and she sighs. "I'll help you with that essay."

Scorpius' eyes nearly bug out of his head. "Really?"

"Yes, just give it," Rose snatches his essay away. "Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration – Discuss," she reads out. "This should be easy enough."

"You're a lifesaver, Weasley," he breathes a sigh of relief and grins widely at her. Rose gives him a martyred expression.

"My name is _Rose_."

"Whatever, _Weasley_."

Rose scowls at him before she walks away and Scorpius thinks that her face is the funniest thing he's seen all week.

.-.-.

He finds a neatly copied out essay on his desk in Transfiguration (how did she do that?) exactly an hour later. He laughs when he sees she's also properly marginalized everything and there are footnotes and asterisks everywhere. Seriously, Rose Weasley is absolutely mad.

(He gets an O for the essay.)

.-.-.

They lose the final match against Gryffindor. It was pretty close, to be fair. He'd caught the Snitch but Gryffindor still won anyway.

(Next year Slytherin will take the Cup for sure.)

* * *

**Third Year**

* * *

It's one week into his summer holidays and he can't ignore Albus' insistent invitations over to The Burrow any longer. He confronts his father one night during dinner.

Predictably, his father blows it all out of proportion and there's a lot of shouting and arguing (mostly on Scorpius and his father's part—his mother tries to smooth everything over) before the older Malfoy finally settles on a compromise.

"Only for one day a week. And I'm not going anywhere near The Burrow," his father smooths back his hair.

"But Toby gets to stay for a whole month—"

"One day a week," his father repeats in an unmistakable this-conversation-is-over voice.

(It's actually better than what he expected, but Scorpius isn't going to tell his father _that_.)

.-.-.

The days he spends at The Burrow are, to put it simply, the best summer he's ever had.

Grandma Molly (she insisted Toby and Scorpius call her that) makes them lemonade and bakes delicious apple pie. They play endless games of Quidditch, swim around in the shallow pond at the bottom of the hill, and take turns de-gnoming the garden. James Potter and Fred Weasley join in occasionally, but it's mostly Albus, Toby, Rose, Caitlyn and himself. Mr. Potter talks to him, sometimes. He asks questions about his parents and Scorpius answers them a little uncomfortably. Albus' mother is his favourite, though.

He finds the way Toby blushes uncontrollably around Caitlyn side-splittingly funny. Also, is it just him, or does Rose seem to be paying more attention to Toby than usual?

Weird. Definitely weird.

.-.-.

This is how Scorpius is Rose's first kiss—

It's three weeks till school reopens. They're dipping their toes into the pond and they talk about all sorts of stuff. Scorpius observes the way Rose seems to be trying to inch closer to Toby with every sweep of her toes. Her cheeks go red when his hand accidentally brushes against her thigh. She flicks her hair over her shoulder more often than usual. Then Scorpius realizes he's paying far too much attention to Rose Weasley, and he directs his gaze elsewhere.

Then, Albus starts a game of Truth and Dare and Rose goes first.

"Truth or dare?" Albus asks lazily, trailing his finger over the surface of the pond water.

"Truth," she says predictably, and Scorpius rolls his eyes a little.

"When was your first kiss?" Albus says after a moment of thought.

Rose's freckly face suffuses with a brilliant scarlet. "That—that—" she splutters, eyes darting towards Toby.

Caitlyn brushes her messy blond hair back and sits upright to smile at Rose a little deviously. Rose's red hair is knotted in little braids and there's a small daisy threaded into her hair at the base of her neck. Scorpius thinks summer looks good on her. "Do tell, Rose."

Rose looks like a caged animal. Her head dips down and she mumbles, "I've never been kissed before."

(This interests Scorpius more than it really should.)

"No big deal," Albus shrugs and moves on to Caitlyn. Rose spends the rest of the hour not looking at anyone in the eye.

Later on, when they walk barefoot back to The Burrow, he hangs back a little and pulls on Rose's forearm. "Hey—" she protests and turns towards him.

Scorpius doesn't know why he bows his head kisses her gently on the lips. Maybe it's because he's been sort of collecting kisses from girls (he's had kisses from five girls now). Either way, it's only a kiss. He figures she won't mind too much. Rose goes completely still and she gapes at him when he pulls away a few seconds later.

"What did you do _that_ for?" Rose's face gets even redder and she looks flabbergasted. Scorpius tucks his hands into his pockets and shrugs. Rose's hair looks like it's on fire again.

"Now you won't have to be embarrassed about never being kissed before," he says, as though it should be painfully obvious. Rose's jaw drops.

He turns around to leave. "Later, Weasley."

She replies almost automatically, "My name is _Rose_."

"Whatever, _Weasley_."

(He wonders how long they're going to keep doing this Rose/Weasley thing.)

(Her lips taste like lemonade and sunshine.)

.-.-.

He doesn't mention the kiss again for the rest of the summer, and neither does she.

.-.-.

He joins the Potter-Weasley clan again on the train ride to Hogwarts. Fred Weasley's eyebrows are singed off in a game of Exploding Snap and he smirks to himself when he sees how enamoured Toby is with Caitlyn (the bloke's really got it bad).

He decides he's going to do something about it.

After the sorting (Hugo, Roxanne and Louis Weasley all get sorted into Gryffindor), they trudge up to their dormitories. He's sharing a dorm with Albus, Toby and some other weird bloke named Thierry.

When he's certain that Albus and Thierry are asleep (it's always easy to tell with Albus – his snores sound like he's under a Sonorus Charm), he throws one of his pillows at Toby.

"Ow!"

"So what're you going to do about Caitlyn?"

"Sod off," Toby mumbles under his breath, but Scorpius hears it anyway. He tries to laugh as quietly as possible.

"You were mooning all over her all summer, mate," Scorpius grins in the dark. "You're just about as subtle as a swift kick to the groin."

After a pause, Toby replies. "I know you can't see it, but I'm flipping you off right now."

His stomach hurts from the minor hysterics he has after that.

"If you want her so bloody much, do something about it. Talk to her, walk her to classes, do _something,_ " Scorpius turns over in his bed. Seriously, he's trying to help a friend out here.

"I don't _want_ her." Toby hisses. "I just like her, okay? Just a little crush, that's all. And I'm working on it."

Scorpius processes this. "You're such a _girl_."

Toby throws his pillow back at him. "I'm not talking to you anymore."

.-.-.

Albus and Scorpius hatch a plan the very next day. Mostly because they were both bloody tired of seeing Toby making constant googly eyes at her — that kind of shit gets disgusting after a while. Their first ever visit to Hogsmeade is on the first of October, and they're determined to set them up on some kind of a date.

The problem is, they can't seem to figure out how.

"This is girl stuff," Albus groans and leans back in his chair. They'd just spent the last hour and a half in the library trying to come up with some semblance of a plan. "Blokes aren't supposed to deal with this kind of bollocks."

Scorpius privately agrees, but he isn't going to give up now. Besides, it'd be sort of funny to see the look on Toby's face when he finds out he'll have to spend time alone with Caitlyn.

"We need a woman's touch," Albus announces. He looks around the silent library and right on cue, Rose Weasley appears from behind a bookshelf.

"Rosie!" Albus waves her over.

She walks over suspiciously. "What?" she asks, studiously not looking at Scorpius.

(Really, there's no need for awkwardness. It was just a kiss.)

"We're trying to get Toby and Caitlyn together so we need your help. We can't come up with anything."

Rose goes still. Scorpius remembers the way she acted around Toby during the summer and he pays a little more attention to her reaction.

"Toby and Caitlyn?" he can tell she's trying to keep her voice neutral. "Why Toby and Caitlyn?"

"Toby likes Caitlyn," Albus shrugs. "Go figure."

(Scorpius thinks this is a little unfair – Caitlyn's pretty in a wholesome, angelic way).

"Really?" Rose sounds shocked.

"Yeah. Toby couldn't take his eyes off her all summer," Albus taps an empty chair impatiently.

"I hadn't noticed."

(Scorpius thinks Rose is in serious denial.)

"Sorry, I don't think I can help you with this," before Albus can say another word, she hurries out of the library.

"What was that all about?" Albus' brow creases.

Scorpius decides not to tell him.

.-.-.

They eventually give up and just settle on trying to herd both Toby and Caitlyn into the Three Broomsticks. There's an extremely slim chance of it actually succeeding but they're going to attempt it anyway.

Albus, Scorpius and Toby wander around Hogsmeade for a good hour or so (his pockets are full with merchandise from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes) before they lug Toby into the Three Broomsticks. Scorpius buys them Butterbeers and Albus says something about needing a new quill before dashing off, but really he's going off to search for Caitlyn and Rose. Scorpius distracts Toby with fifteen minutes of inane chatter before he sees Albus lugging Rose and Caitlyn over. Rose is scowling but Caitlyn looks befuddled.

"Fancy seeing you two here," Scorpius greets, and he scoots over to make space for Caitlyn.

"Actually, Albus dragged—"

"Oh, bollocks, I forgot to buy my quill," Albus laughs as convincingly as possible. "Scor, Rose, follow me, won't you?"

"Why?" Rose plants herself firmly beside Caitlyn and glares.

"I need your expertise in, um, selecting quills," Albus says hesitantly. He makes wild gestures behind Toby's head but Rose refuses to budge (or meet Scorpius' eyes).

(He thinks she knows he knows.)

There's a long beat of silence between them before Rose sighs and rises. "Fine," she mutters. Toby starts spluttering and stammering but Albus pushes Rose out the door before she can change her mind.

.-.-.

"So, how was your day?" Albus says the moment Toby climbs through their common room.

Scorpius looks up from his game of Wizarding Chess and grins widely. "Had a good time?"

He completely expects Toby to strangle them but their plan must have gone better than expected because he gives a giddy smile and says, "Yeah, it was alright."

Albus and him are _geniuses_.

.-.-.

Toby starts spending a lot more time with Caitlyn. Like, a _lot_ more time. Scorpius sees him walking her to classes, helping her with her books, all that sappy stuff. Toby's almost always has this dopey smile. It's almost worse than before, but, you know, Scorpius is happy for his friend. Except seeing Toby with a sort-of-girlfriend kind of makes him want to have a girlfriend too, so he starts dating this bubbly, curly-haired Ravenclaw named Lorraine Lark.

(Her voice is a bit annoying and she has this habit of laughing at everything he says but she's a good kisser, so it doesn't really matter.)

.-.-.

It's a bright, chilly morning and Scorpius is doing some laps around the Black Lake when he sees something he doesn't usually see – Rose Weasley sitting cross-legged on a rock beside the lake. There's a book on her lap and but she's not reading it. The wind tugs at her loose hair as she stares out at the lake with a pensive expression on her face.

Scorpius jogs over. "Morning," he says, and settles himself beside her. She jerks with shock and her brow furrows a bit when she sees it's him. Then a scowl is on her face and she goes back to staring at the calm waters of the lake.

"Morning, Scorpius," she mumbles back, and he realizes that this is the first time he's spoken to her directly since summer.

(Also, she insists on calling him by his full name even though everyone calls him Scor. It's a little annoying.)

They sit in surprisingly companionable silence. Scorpius watches Rose throw a piece of toast into the lake. It floats gently on the surface for a few moments before a black, slimy tentacle slithers up and tugs it down.

"Penny for your thoughts?" he quotes one of his mother's favourite sayings without thinking.

Rose leans back on her hands. "I'm thinking that I'm the thickest person ever. Dim-witted. Slow. Dense. Brainless. Obtuse. Unintelligent. Imperceptive. Take your pick. Like you said, Toby's affection towards Caitlyn is so transparent and obvious. I was just too thick to see it. Or maybe I just chose not to. I'm not sure."

He knows that she's talking about Toby. So he stays silent.

(Also, about half the words she used were completely unnecessary.)

"How'd you find out?" Rose turns to him.

"You haven't been very secretive about it," Scorpius informs her with a little grin (Rose punches him on his arm). "Every time you look at him it's as though you want to eat him all up." A bit of an exaggeration, but the look of sheer horror on her face is kind of worth it.

"I do not!" she gasps. She even puts her hand over her mouth and all.

It feels a little weird, sitting her talking about Rose's gigantic crush on Toby. But he has one more hour to kill before Quidditch practice, so he'll stay for a while.

"You do. I'm surprised Albus hasn't figured it out yet," Scorpius runs a hand through his hair. "Sorry about that whole Toby Caitlyn thing, by the way. I couldn't really stop it because then I'd have to tell Albus and I got the feeling you wouldn't like it."

Rose exhales heavily and brushes her fingers over her brow. "Thanks for not telling him."

"No problem."

"And about that kiss—" Rose begins uncomfortably. Scorpius rolls his eyes, because seriously, why can't she just drop it already? It's like she just _loves_ being put into awkward situations.

"What kiss?" he stands up and brushes himself off. "See you later, Weasley."

He can tell Rose is trying so, so hard not to say it.

"My name is _Rose,_ " she bursts out, glowering at him.

He laughs to himself.

"Whatever, _Weasley_."

"You're incorrigible!" she shouts at his back, and Scorpius makes a mental note to look that word up later.

.-.-.

He sets a new record at the next Quidditch match against Ravenclaw when he catches the Snitch in exactly four minutes and thirteen seconds. There's another fantastic victory party and Lorraine lets him feel her up a little when they make out afterwards.

(His life is bloody awesome right now.)

.-.-.

He gets bitten by a vicious Venomous Tentacula in Herbology and spends the next week in the Hospital Wing, slipping in and out of unconsciousness.

There are three vertical scars on his upper arms that won't go away no matter how much Insta-Heal salve Madam Pomfrey rubs on.

(He doesn't really mind, because it looks sort of badass.)

(Plus, Lorraine likes brushing her fingers over the scars when they snog.)

.-.-.

Toby takes Caitlyn out on an official date on their next Hogsmeade trip. Albus and Scorpius make fun of him every chance they get but Toby doesn't even seem like he cares very much.

Scorpius takes Lorraine to Hogsmeade too, but the entire trip is made unbearable by the fact that she wants to go into Madam Puddifoot's Teashop and say revolting stuff to each other. Scorpius absolutely refuses. Lorraine whines and complains. They get into a minor argument about something so fucking stupid he can't even remember what it was about. She stomps back to Hogwarts, abandoning him.

Scorpius shrugs and starts talking to a giggly group of Hufflepuff third-years in Honeydukes. One of them agrees when he asks her out.

(The slap Lorraine gives him when she finds out doesn't sting much.)

.-.-.

His third-year is coming to a close when he finds out that he has this certain effect on girls—

They like him.

(This is strange to Scorpius, because he's not exactly known for being very nice to girls. In fact, Lorraine made sure everyone knew that he snogged another girl when he was still with her. So it's only logical that all girls should despise him.)

But yes, they do like him. He also learns that girls particularly like it when he runs his hand through his blond hair or when he lifts only one corner of his mouth in a slightly arrogant grin. So, of course he starts doing it more often. His female admirers increase dramatically.

(This makes him feel like he's the fucking _man_.)

.-.-.

He doesn't know when, why or even _how_ he becomes friends with Rose Weasley, but he does, anyway.

He supposes it happens after they meet up more often at the rock beside the Black Lake. She shows up there every other morning with a book tucked neatly underneath her arm and whenever Scorpius spots her when he's running he'll go over and sit down. Rose usually rants on and on and on about things that are going on in her life. Scorpius just lays back, closes his eyes and listens. Sometimes Rose brings food for the Giant Squid. It's kind of the weirdest friendship ever, and if he starts thinking about it too much, it starts making less and less sense.

"I had to complete a Dream Diary last week for Divination. I don't mean any sort of offence, but Divination is a sort of useless subject, don't you think? All that guesswork and crystal balls and tea dregs seem a bit dodgy too me. My mother dropped it when she was a third-year, but I don't think I will because I'm going to take eighteen subjects for my NEWTs when I'm seventeen. But I've already told you that, haven't I?"

It takes a moment for Scorpius to realize that she's waiting for an answer.

Scorpius nods vaguely. "Yeah, I think so."

Rose frowns a little at his reply, but she continues with an enthusiasm that's almost scary. He wonders what it's like for Caitlyn.

"What?"

Scorpius realizes that he must have spoken out loud.

"Er – nothing."

Rose narrows her eyes. "I heard you say something along the lines of, 'I wonder what it's like for Caitlyn'."

" _Nothing,_ " he stresses, turning away.

"Spit it out, Scorpius," Rose crosses her arms.

Scorpius gives in. "It's just that – you talk a lot. So I was just wondering how Caitlyn – er – puts up with it."

(Yeah, he definitely could've worded that better.)

Rose's face falls.

"You wanted to know," Scorpius mutters.

Rose stares hard at her copy of _Hogwarts: A History_. "A lot of people say that. That I talk a lot, I mean. Well, it's not like I can help it," she says defensively. "If you can't stand listening to me, why don't you just leave?"

Scorpius doesn't budge. He starts humming under his breath.

"Also, I'm not really talking to Caitlyn anymore," Rose informs him haughtily. "We're still friends, I suppose, but she's been completely preoccupied with Toby as of late and I hardly see her anymore, except when we're in class, but even then all she wants to discuss is Toby. It's sickening."

"Toby's the same, but I'm sure they'll get over this phase. Or, you know, until Toby dumps her," he says without thinking. _Fuck._

Rose immediately turns on him. "Just because you have a date-and-dump policy with girls doesn't mean Toby's the same. I hardly think he's going to 'dump' her after just two months of an established relationship. Toby's a very, very nice person!"

It isn't until now that Scorpius realizes just how much Rose actually likes Toby. Actually, she's bloody in love with him.

(It kind of bothers him a little.)

"Fuck this." He honestly thinks he's never been more exasperated with her. Rose's eyes widen at the profanity. He picks himself up. "I've got Quidditch practice."

.-.-.

He turns fourteen a month later and his Slytherin mates throw him a little party in the common room. He drinks some Firewhiskey for a dare and he gets drunk for the first time in his life.

(It's fucking _fantastic_.)

.-.-.

"I kissed Caitlyn!" Toby bursts into their dormitory, scaring the shit out of Scorpius. Albus' jerks awake and he rubs at his eyes blearily. A piece of crumpled parchment that used to be his labelled sketch of a Red Aye Aye for Care of Magical Creatures is stuck to the side of his cheek.

"Come again?" Scorpius asks.

"I kissed Caitlyn!" he repeats, and starts whooping and hollering. Thierry (their other dorm mate) grunts and rolls over in his sleep. "And it was amazing!"

Albus falls back onto his bed. "Congratulations," he mumbles. "Lemme sleep."

"You mean you haven't kissed her yet before?" Scorpius is aghast. He assumed Toby and Caitlyn were already snogging. Bloody hell, he really is the perfect gentleman.

"We kissed in the empty fifth-year classroom beside the Great Hall," Toby has this huge, dopey grin on his face. He flops onto his bed and exhales loudly. "Wow. Just... wow."

He doesn't even throw a pillow at him like he usually does when Scorpius calls him a girl.

.-.-.

They lose the Quidditch cup to Gryffindor again.

.-.-.

He's caught in the fourth-floor broom closet kissing a Slytherin third-year named Monica Macmillian, and he gets detention from Professor McGonagall for two Saturdays.

(Scorpius reckons it's worth it because Monica likes to do this thing where she tugs on his lower lip with her teeth and it makes him absolutely crazy.)

.-.-.

Rose Weasley still isn't talking to him. She's the queen of the cold shoulder, she really is.

So, Scorpius decides to do something about it. It's not because he _wants_ her to talk to him, or anything, but he's just tired of her silence.

He goes running every day until Rose finally shows back up to the rock by the Black Lake. He jogs over and says a quick and reluctant, "Sorry!" before Rose can stalk off.

Her mouth drops open in a wordless O. "What?"

Scorpius takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry about what I said. I was being a twat."

After a few seconds she smiles widely, and just like that, it's over. Rose starts telling him all about a talk she had with Professor Lightwood because of the unfair "Exceeds Expectations" she got for her Charms assignment and how she eventually got the "Outstanding" she rightfully deserved after ten minutes of rational discussion and reasonable justification on her part. (Her words, not his.)

Scorpius gets the feeling Professor Lightwood changed her grade from an E to an O just to get her out of his hair. He laughs and says, "Good going, Weasley."

(It feels good to have her talking to him again, he'll admit.)

* * *

**A/N: Let me know what you think! :)**


	2. Fourth Year, Fifth Year

**Fourth Year**

* * *

It's barely been twelve days into his summer at the Malfoy Manor when he decides that he's fucking sick of his family and he can't take anymore of his parents' constant squabbling.

He doesn't know why or when it started, but he assumes their marital issues or _whatever_ began when he was away at Hogwarts last year. They're frequently at each other's necks and Scorpius is tired of sitting at the dinner table listening to them bite out furious barbs and comments at each other. He's wanted to ask what this was all about a couple of times but he decides against it. He doesn't really want to know.

(It's not like they would have told him, anyway. They still treat him like he's eight or something. So he just tunes them out.)

They're in the middle of another argument when Scorpius pipes up during dinner, just because he can't stand another second of their bickering.

"Will you two please stop?" he says, almost mildly, and he isn't surprised when they ignore him completely.

"I cannot believe you!" his mother throws up her arms in frustration. "It's been twenty-two _years_ , Draco!"

"I refuse to talk about this anymore, Astoria," his father replies coldly, and he stabs his slice of quail viciously with a knife.

Scorpius decides he needs a break from all of this and announces, "I'm going over to the Potters tomorrow."

This effectively captures his father's attention. His head snaps towards him and he sits up higher in his chair. "You most certainly are not. I've had enough of the Potters to last a _lifetime_."

"Oh, just bloody grow _up_ , won't you?" his mother downs her glass of wine in one go and stomps dramatically out of the dining room.

"Your mother always had a flair for unnecessary theatrics," his father sighs angrily after a brief pause, and then he continues eating.

Scorpius doesn't say another word for the rest of the evening.

(He thinks he knows what they're arguing about now.)

-.-.-

The next morning, his mother insists on bringing him over to the Potters. She shakes her head irritably when he reminds her that his father clearly said no yesterday night. "I'm your mother, Scorpius. And if I say you're allowed to go over to the Potters, you're allowed," she pauses for a bit before continuing. "Do you think they'd mind if I had a little chat with them for a bit?"

Scorpius is certain his mouth falls open a bit. His mother tightens her grip around his arm and she Disapparates with him in tow.

(He thinks that the Potters wouldn't mind at all, actually.)

-.-.-

Summer at The Burrow is a sticky blur of sweet lemonade, cool grass and toasty bare feet.

Albus, Toby, Caitlyn, Rose and Scorpius are all lying on the gentle, sweeping crest of the hill that overlooks all of Ottery St Catchpole. He's got a tall, sweating glass of Grandma Molly's famous lemonade in his hands and he picks himself up a little to take a sip. He snorts when he sees that Toby and Caitlyn are trying to hold hands as discreetly as possible. Rose is swatting away mosquitoes and determinedly trying not to notice them. Also, is it just him, or do the shorts Rose wear get tinier and tinier every summer?

(Look, he's a bloke, alright? He notices.)

Albus rolls over on his stomach and lays his cheek down on the sun-warmed ground. "Sod it, I don't ever want summer to end," he sighs contentedly. "This is the _life_."

Scorpius tips his head back and privately agrees.

-.-.-

When his mother tells him to spend the night at The Burrow that day, he's gobsmacked.

"I talked with Mrs Potter a lot today. She convinced me to tell you stay over and I thought it was a wonderful idea," she tells him, looking cheery as she prepares to Disapparate home. "I'll send over some clothes."

Scorpius nods, hardly daring to believe his luck.

"Also, the Potters are very nice people," his mother waves goodbye as she walks past the fence surrounding The Burrow. "I think I might drop by more often."

-.-.-

Albus is just as excited as he is when Scorpius tells him he gets to spend the night.

"This is awesome, Scor," he declares. "We're so not going to sleep tonight. At _all_."

After Toby and Caitlyn leave, Albus shows him his room at The Burrow. "It used to be my Uncle Ron's room when he was in Hogwarts. I always sleep here for the summer," he says as he opens the worn door. The room's walls are covered in faded orange Chudley Cannons posters (Scorpius thinks that this might be some sort of a mistake because the Chudley Cannons are a _terrible_ team). The floorboards are creaky and the windows are scratchy. He throws himself on cleanly laundered bed sheets and he decides he likes it.

(They spend the entire night stuffing themselves with Honeydukes candy and by three o' clock in the morning Scorpius feels like upchucking everything in his stomach.)

(He still has the best time he's ever had, though.)

-.-.-

When he wakes up the next morning Albus is snoring like a chainsaw. He pulls on a worn shirt and running pants before he tiptoes silently out to go for a quick run (his mornings never feel complete without a good, sweaty run).

The morning air is crisp and fresh and the smell of dew still lingers in the air. He's on his third lap around The Burrow when he sees Rose Weasley in an oversized jumper and shorts sitting by the pond, trailing lazy circles with her toes on the water while reading a book. This scene is so reminiscent of their Black Lake spot back at Hogwarts that he almost laughs out loud.

(Yeah, okay, so what if he's begun to think of that rock by the Black Lake as their spot? It's _nothing_ , alright?)

So of course, he jogs over and settles down beside her. Rose doesn't even turn to look at him. Her eyes stay glued to her book and she smiles a little. "Good morning, Scorpius."

Still panting, he folds his arms under his head they sit in comfortable silence. Rose occasionally pipes up to gush about this particular book she's reading. It's some sappy romance book (typical) by someone named Jane Austen and she's going on and on about this Mr. Darcy character who's all aloof and arrogant at first but he falls for the main female character in the end.

(Scorpius thinks Mr. Darcy sounds like a real tosser.)

"Isn't it just romantic?" Rose gushes, and her eyes actually look _starry_ for a moment.

Scorpius lets out a derisive grunt. "Um, not really."

Rose looks at him like he just killed three puppies with his bare hands. "Not really?" she repeats his words, looking horror-struck. "Scorpius, this is one of the most remarkable and incredible Muggle love stories ever penned."

"Don't tell me you believe in all that fucking love-at-first-sight bollocks," he groans noisily, because it really is too early to deal with this.

"No, not really, actually. It's fine in books, though," Rose leans back down on the palms of her hands. Her finger is crooked over the spine of the worn out paperback so that she doesn't lose the page. "Also, I'd appreciate it if you used fewer profanities around me. I find it disgusting."

"F-u-u-u-c-k," he stretches the word out into several syllables, grinning, and he says it a couple more times just for good measure. Rose punches him on his arm and returns to her book.

(He can tell she doesn't really mind his swearing.)

"I wonder why girls like you," she says, like it's some kind of miracle.

He raises a blond eyebrow suggestively and flexes his arms (he's been working out a little). "Isn't it obvious why girls like me, Weasley?"

A little colour rushes into her cheeks and Rose pointedly looks away. "That is exactly what I meant. You obviously don't have a single romantic bone in your body. How exactly do they put up with you as a boyfriend, I have no idea," she flips a page of her book and continues reading.

"I don't _need_ any romantic bones," Scorpius scoffs. "I just pick any willing girl, snog her senseless for a few weeks then move on to another. Simple as that," he exaggerates it a little (he really doesn't think he's that much of a bastard) just so he can see Rose all worked up. Unsurprisingly, it works.

Rose looks up from her book, absolutely outraged and Scorpius goes into hysterics when he sees her expression.

"So you don't give her flowers, or chocolates, or—or even take her out?" Rose says disbelievingly.

Scorpius shakes his head. "I don't do that kind of shit, Weasley."

"You are undoubtedly the single most unromantic person I have ever had the misfortune to meet."

" _Thank_ you," Scorpius replies with every evidence of sincerity.

(His stomach still hurts from laughing after an hour.)

-.-.-

Later that afternoon, when they're playing Quidditch again with Toby and Caitlyn (they came over at noon), Scorpius notices that Rose is pretty good at Quidditch.

She plays Chaser on the opposing team and she's fast and quick on her broom. Her throws are good and she's very nimble.

"How come you aren't on the Gryffindor team?" he asks her, after everyone is exhausted and they're just lying down on the grassy hill again.

"Yeah, you should try out. You're good at playing Chaser," Toby interjects before Rose gets the chance to reply. He practically _feels_ Rose's cheeks turn a deep scarlet.

"I originally wanted to – since I was in first-year, actually – but my busy class schedules eat up most of my time. Between homework, studying and co-curricular activities I can barely squeeze in Quidditch practice. But I suppose I could try out, since you suggested it," Rose sits up a little and gives Toby a shy, pleased smile.

(What the fuck? Scorpius was the one who brought it up in the first place.)

Caitlyn giggles a little. "She's right – she's completely bogged down with studies. You should see her timetable, I don't know how she manages to do Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies."

"Muggle Studies? What the bloody hell are you taking Muggle Studies for? Your mum has two Muggle parents!" Albus protests in horror, shaking his head.

"Wow," Toby exhales, impressed. "You must be really smart to be able to handle all that."

Rose bobs her head twice, lips curling up at the corners. "I'm alright."

He can't believe Rose falls so easily for Toby's I'm-such-a-nice-bloke act. Okay, so it isn't really an act because Toby really is that genuinely nice. But still.

(This really, _really_ doesn't make any fucking sense.)

-.-.-

The train ride to Hogwarts is mostly uneventful, save for a brief moment of chaos when Fred Weasley accidentally spilt his secret stash of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder in their part of the train and everyone spent ten minutes fumbling about in complete darkness.

He honestly can't wait for his fourth year to start. Family life was getting unbearable again back home. Even worse was the fact that he was sort of the cause of their arguments.

(Whatever. They're the parents, so _they_ figure it out.)

-.-.-

They get a new Potions professor – Professor Imelda. She's one of those teachers who's crazy about inter-house unity, so on the first day of school she assigns them one partner from another house for the rest of the year. He has Potions with Gryffindors and he gets this curvy, gorgeous Hispanic girl named Sofia Alvarez as his partner and he's feeling fucking _great_.

They're in the middle of mixing up some Swelling Solution when he hears muted laughter from across the room. He looks over and sees Rose and Toby together as partners, talking and teasing each other lightly. They kind of look like the best of friends.

Scorpius attempts to direct his irritation elsewhere and he ends up tangled together in a broom closet with Sofia Alvarez after Potions ends. Both of them are half-an-hour late for Transfiguration.

(He doesn't know where the irritation comes from, okay? So just shut _up_.)

-.-.-

Rose tells him that she made it as Chaser on Gryffindor's Quidditch team one morning a few weeks later when he shows up at the Black Lake. Actually, she doesn't just say it; she almost shrieks it because she's _that_ happy.

Scorpius grins and congratulates her. She bounces around on the balls of her feet and her hair looks like fire when it's against the sunlight.

(He thinks that this might be the perfect moment for a small hug or something but that's something Toby would do – and he's definitely not Toby – so he slings him arm around her shoulders instead.)

-.-.-

Their first Quidditch match of the year is against Gryffindor.

"We have to win this one, we just have too," Toby tells him fervently before they make it out to the pitch, and Scorpius wholly agrees. If they get beaten, they'll still be in the running for the Quidditch Cup but they haven't ever won a match against Gryffindor before (seriously, it's fucking ridiculous, because they're just as good as Gryffindor) and it's getting extremely tiring. Slytherin hasn't won the Quidditch cup since James Potter joined the team a few years ago, but Scorpius is convinced this is going to be their year.

He only remembers that Rose is going to be playing Chaser when Scorpius sees her straddling her broomstick just before they launch into the air. She shoots him a quick grin before she whizzes away and Scorpius finds himself smiling too, because Slytherin's just _has_ to kick Gryffindor's arse.

(They still lose, anyway. Rose doesn't let him forget it for _weeks_. Slytherin really, really need that Quidditch Cup this year.)

-.-.-

It's their first Hogsmeade trip of the year and Scorpius goes with Sofia Alvarez. Mostly because she insisted, and Sofia's been his longest girlfriend ever – almost three months now. Sofia's actually a pretty cool girl – she shudders at the mention of Madam Puddifoot's when Scorpius reluctantly suggests it. They spend an hour Three Broomsticks instead for some Butterbeer (and snogging).

They pick Honeydukes as their second destination, and Sofia is picking out some of her favourite candies when Scorpius sees Rose somewhere near several barrels of different flavoured toffees. She's alone, so Scorpius strolls over and says, "What're you picking out?"

Rose jumps a little in alarm but relaxes when she sees it's him. "Oh, hello, Scorpius. No, I'm not buying anything," she stares around at the immensely crowded, brightly-coloured shop. "Just looking. I've never been here before."

Scorpius' eyes just about bug out. "I'm sorry? Wait, you've _never_ been to Honeydukes before?"

(That _cannot_ be bloody true.)

Rose frowns. "No. I rarely ever make trips to Hogsmeade because my school workload is just too overwhelming. Besides, I don't really have enough gold on me to buy any candy. Did you come here with Sofia Alvarez? Because she's making these gestures from over there so I think she wants you to go over now."

Scorpius doesn't answer her last question and pulls out his little sachet of Galleons. "My treat," he jiggles it, smiling, and ignores her when she protests.

He makes sure he buys Rose every kind of candy they have in Honeydukes before she goes back to Hogwarts. Because, you know, she's never fucking _been_ to Honeydukes before. Which is something he still can't quite believe, to be honest.

(Rose tells him afterwards that Spindle's Lick O' Rish Twizzlers are now her favourite candy.)

-.-.-

When he steps into the common room a few weeks later, the first thing he sees is Toby and Caitlyn snogging like crazy on the green velvet couch. Seriously, he sees tongue and everything. They don't even notice him and Scorpius has to cough loudly (twice) to let them know that he's, you know, _there_.

They spring apart, both blushing and stammering but Scorpius just smirks and tells them to carry on. "Don't stop on my account," he says, and goes upstairs to his dorm.

(Toby throws a pillow at him later on when Scorpius congratulates him on the fact that Toby's finally grown some bollocks.)

-.-.-

He's lying on his back by the Black Lake one morning, listening to Rose talk when she suddenly brings up their OWLs next year.

"I've been thinking a lot about my OWLs lately," Rose declares, snapping her copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them shut. "I've already started studying for them—"

Scorpius' eyes flick open in disgust. "Weasley, those are one whole bloody _year_ away."

(It's a miracle they're even friends – Rose and him have just about zero in common.)

"Exactly," Rose rolls her eyes a little. "There's only a year left! Getting excellent grades in your OWLs is essential if you want to get a good position in the Ministry after you've graduated. You _do_ realize that, don't you?"

"Well, not everybody has their life all mapped out like you do."

"But doesn't everyone has that moment? Where everything clicks and you just figure out what you're going to do with your life?" Rose presses, looking bemused.

"Merlin, _no_. Fuck, you probably have a ten-step list and diagram charts all about how you're going to become Minister of Magic, don't you?"

He waits for her to deny it but Rose stays silent for a few seconds too long. Scorpius starts half-laughing and half-exclaiming in horror because Rose Weasley? Absolutely _nuts_.

(He kind of likes it.)

-.-.-

Potions quickly become his least favourite subject.

(It's got nothing to do with the fact that all Toby and Rose do when they're partners in Potions is laugh and joke around. He can hear them from across the sodding dungeon, for Merlin's sake. It's really messing up his concentration.)

But then again, the way Sofia Alvarez hikes up her skirt so that all he can see is tanned leg also kind of detracts from his attentiveness in class. He's not complaining, though.

-.-.-

He spends nearly all of his Christmas at The Burrow this year. His mother insists but he thinks she might just be trying to get him out of their house because now instead of arguing and shouting at each other, his parents are barely speaking to one another. It's bloody creepy (not to mention uncomfortable) so he's sort of, maybe, grateful for Albus' crazy, tight-knit family right now.

They have a proper White Christmas for the first time in seven years and they spend most of their holiday outside in the blissfully white drifts of thick, fluffy snow. They have snowball fights where _everyone_ joins in (even the adults).

Scorpius is in the middle of a wicked snowball fight with Albus, Caitlyn, Toby, and Rose when Toby accidentally chucks a snowball smack in the middle of Rose's face. She stumbles a little and falls down hard on the ground, crying out in pain. Scorpius automatically starts to go over to Rose's side, but Toby makes it there first.

"I'm so sorry!" Toby gently pulls Rose back up again with his gloved hands, stricken. "It was a total accident – I should've seen where I was aiming. Are you alright?"

Scorpius watches as Toby rips his glove off his goose-pimpled hands and carefully brushes snow off Rose's nose, cheeks, hair. Their difference in height is almost comical – Toby nearly towers over her. Rose's face floods with colour and she nods wordlessly, a shy smile playing on her lips. The entire scene is so picturesque that Scorpius wants to projectile vomit.

(Also, doesn't Toby have a fucking girlfriend?)

Albus gives Scorpius a bewildered glance (he obviously finds this as weird as Scorpius does) but Caitlyn barely even notices. She gathers up a monster of a snowball and lobs it at Albus, giggling in earnest. His glasses are knocked askew and the snowball fight resumes.

-.-.-

This is his first proper Christmas dinner with the Weasley-Potters at The Burrow, and he'll admit that he really, really enjoys it. Uncle Ron is getting drunk on eggnog, the Scamander twins and their wacky mum are singing some scarily off-key rendition of a Muggle Christmas carol, and Scorpius' stomach is stuffed full with turkey.

When the clock strikes twelve midnight, Grandpa Weasley raises his glass of Ogden's Best Firewhiskey in the air. All conversation dies down and everyone else follows suit (the underage ones raise mugs of hot chocolate). Scorpius, Caitlyn and Toby are momentarily confused. Albus mouths at them to raise their mugs too, and they obediently do as their told.

"To Fred Weasley," Uncle George says solemnly, eyes shining with tears.

"To Fred Weasley," everyone echoes, and the atmosphere abruptly turns sombre. Everyone drinks to this bloke Fred Weasley and not long after the chatter and laughter return and everything is back to normal again.

"We toast to my Uncle Fred every year at Christmas," Albus explains gravely to Caitlyn, Toby and Scorpius. Rose looks on with a sad expression on her face. "He was my Uncle George's identical twin and he died in The Battle of Hogwarts."

"Oh," Scorpius says, because what else can he say?

"I'm sorry," Caitlyn looks stricken. "It must have been awful for your Uncle George."

"I don't know, I never actually knew him." Albus shrugs, going back to his plateful of baked potatoes. "I hear he was a really cool bloke, though."

He notices that Rose sees the slightly uncomfortable look on his face and she changes the topic to something happier.

(He's feels sorry for Uncle Fred's death, of course, but subjects like this always make him a little awkward.)

-.-.-

It's Valentine's Day (which is a stupid fucking holiday, in his opinion) and he's in the Great Hall, wolfing down some breakfast with Albus when he sees Toby with a bunch of roses in his hands, walking quickly towards the Gryffindor table. He watches as Toby creeps up behind Caitlyn, taps her on the shoulder and presents her with the bouquet when she turns around with her straw-blond hair flying. There's scattered applause and several hoots.

Rose, who's sitting beside Caitlyn, looks shattered.

Scorpius looks back down at his watery egg.

"Wow," Albus sniggers a little. "Toby kind of has it bad for Caitlyn."

"Yeah. I mean, flowers? Flowers are fucking overrated. Actually, Valentine's Day is fucking overrated," Scorpius takes a long drag of orange juice.

Albus looks at him curiously. "You alright, Scor? What're you all worked up about?"

(Scorpius doesn't even know.)

-.-.-

A few hours later, Sofia Alvarez tells him she never wants to see his face again after Scorpius snorts derisively when she suggests that they do something a little special today. Seriously, if he knew she was the type of girl who went crazy over Valentine's Day, he probably wouldn't have started snogging her.

Scorpius just shrugs and says, "Do whatever you want. I don't fucking care."

(This is the seventh time a girl has slapped him.)

-.-.-

He decides that he's going to lay off girls for a while after that.

-.-.-

This is the first time he enters the Room of Requirement—

Albus comes flying in their dorm one early Sunday night. He's trying to finish up a star chart on his bed and Toby is gone somewhere with Caitlyn.

"I have to show you something!" Albus cries.

Scorpius looks up from his messy scrawl. "Eh?"

"I don't—I have—amazing—just come!" Albus is so excited his speech comes out garbled and he's literally jumping up and down. Scorpius throws his chart aside and obliges.

Twenty minutes later, they're slinking under James Potter's Invisibility Cloak on the seventh-floor and Albus comes to a stop beside this hideous tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy attempting to teach trolls ballet.

"Er – I'm sorry, Albs, but there are tapestries everywhere in Hogwarts. I don't see what's so bloody special about this one. Yeah, it's pretty ugly, but—"

"No—not the tapestry!" Albus punches him lightly on the shoulder. "Okay, you stay under the Invisibility Cloak and watch me," he slips away before Scorpius can say anything else. Scorpius curses under his breath and watches Albus walk back on forth in front of the tapestry whilst muttering something under his breath. He thinks that this is the definitely weirdest thing he's ever seen Albus do.

This carries on for another minute and Scorpius is about to get the fuck back to the common room when a door just appears out of nowhere. Scorpius blinks and tugs the Invisibility Cloak off his head.

"There! There it is!" Albus cries, pointing excitedly. "The Room of Requirement! My dad's always talking about this room but he absolutely refuses to tell James and me how to find it. But there it is! Hah!"

"Great. A magical room. What does it do?"

After Albus briefly explains to him what the Room of Requirement does, Scorpius is kind of amazed.

"Think of all the possibilities!" Albus whoops. Then he grabs Scorpius again and leads him towards the dark mahogany door. "Take a look inside."

Scorpius twists the knob open and he's greeted by a strange sight. It's a large, tiled room filled to the brim with chamber pots. "Er..." he says, stepping back with a raised eyebrow.

Albus flushes a little. "Sorry, but I just really had to go."

(They use the Room of Requirement much more often after tonight. Mostly for victory parties and his own fifteenth birthday celebration, but Scorpius occasionally brings a girl over and thinks hard of a room with a nice, soft bed in it.)

-.-.-

They lose the Quidditch cup to Gryffindor. _Again_.

(It's getting fucking annoying.)

-.-.-

It's several weeks till final exams and Scorpius hardly ever sees Rose anymore. When he does, she usually has her head buried deep in a textbook. He finds her one day in the library at her usual corner, books stacked high and arranged in a sort of fort around her armchair. Her eyes flit across the pages of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection.

"Hey, Weasley," Scorpius flops down on an armchair opposite and stretches lazily.

"Oh. Hello, Scorpius," Rose looks up and gives him a fleeting, distracted smile. "Merlin, I'm never going to make it in time for exams," she runs a hand through her messy red hair, and Scorpius observes in partial awe as her hair glows a deep, fiery gold-red against the sun.

"Relax, Weasley, we've still got four weeks left," Scorpius picks up a random dusty tome and starts flicking absent-mindedly. "I cannot fucking _wait_ for summer to start."

Rose nods vaguely. "You really should study, Scorpius. You're an intelligent person, and I think you could come top in exams if you really tried. Remember when you used to come second to me when we were in first and second-year?"

Scorpius bobs his head, grinning a little at the memory.

Then Rose tells him to read up on his Herbology and they both spend the next two hours in silence.

(He actually really likes these long moments of peace spent together with Rose. Reading is the only time she ever properly shuts up.)

(Also, he can't help it, but Rose's head is really distracting, so he doesn't revise so much as stare in fascination at her hair. He swears she's the only Weasley with red hair in this vibrant shade.)

-.-.-

The next day, he's in the library looking for Rose again ( _What_? Get off his fucking case, okay? It's nice, spending time with her) but he sees Toby in his spot, with Rose in the armchair opposite. Toby's telling her some story that must be really amusing because Rose is laughing and she's not telling _him_ to shut his gob so she can study.

Scorpius turns on his heel and gets the fuck out of the library.

-.-.-

"What's going on between you and Rose, mate?" Scorpius asks abruptly one morning, when the both of them are done doing some bench presses in the Quidditch pitch. They're both sweaty from exertion and Toby pauses in the middle of wiping his brow.

Scorpius watches Toby as he plops himself down on a bleacher. After a long pause, he replies, "I don't really know."

(He sounds even more confused than Scorpius is.)

-.-.-

Later that night, when Albus and Thierry are asleep, Toby asks quietly from his bed, "D'you think it's possible to like two girls at the same time?"

Scorpius doesn't answer and he pretends to be asleep.

* * *

**Fifth Year**

* * *

He really, really wants to stop being so bothered about the idea of Rose and Toby together — since Toby all but fucking admitted to him that he kind of, maybe liked Rose too. But he discovers it's doubly impossible during the summer because of those criminally tiny shorts and tank tops Rose wears. All. The. _Time_.

And since when did her legs get so long?

So, he does this thing where he just pushes her out of his mind and tries to concentrate on something else. It works most of the time.

(Not really.)

-.-.-

One particular morning, after he's done with his daily laps around The Burrow (he's staying over this summer, too), he finds Rose at the pond again. He doesn't like the way he sort of gets all relaxed when he sees her there, reading. He doesn't like it at fucking _all_.

"Morning, Weasley," he greets, like so many other times before. He's normally not one for routine but he likes this one just fine.

"Good morning, Scorpius," Rose glances away from the pages of her book long enough to throw him a warm smile.

(She'd given up a long time ago trying to get Scorpius to call her by her first name.)

( _He'd_ given up a long time ago trying to get Rose to call him by his nickname.)

She pats the stretch of grass beside her, preoccupied with her book again. Scorpius lies down and closes his eyes, already feeling fuzzy inside as the sun warms his eyelids.

He doesn't know how much time has passed when he hears someone say loudly, "Hey, Rose!"

His eyes slowly blink open and he hears rapid footfalls somewhere to his right.

"Oh, good morning!" Rose returns, snapping her book shut.

Her voice is all soft and fluttery and _different_ , and Scorpius instantly recognizes it as the voice she only uses when Toby is in near vicinity.

(Okay, what the fuck? Why does he even _know_ that?)

He sits up and sees Toby jogging over, clad in an old gray sweatshirt. Toby's face jerks in surprise and mild confusion when he sees Scorpius sitting upright beside her. "Morning, Scor."

He grunts in reply, already feeling irritated. The previous fuzzy feelings have completely dissipated.

"I thought I'd find you out here," Toby grins boyishly. "What's the book about?" he sits down on the rock beside Rose and Rose launches enthusiastically into a long, winded, and complex summary of the book she's reading. Scorpius can tell by the look of Toby's face that he doesn't comprehend a single word she's saying but he's concentrating mostly on her face anyway, so he nods at regular intervals and makes noises of agreement.

Scorpius wants to yell, "Bloody hell, you already _have_ a girlfriend!" but that would make him a huge hypocrite anyway so he restrains himself and leaves.

(He thinks Rose doesn't even notice he's gone.)

-.-.-

He sees the devastated look on Rose's face when Toby and Caitlyn sneak off right in the middle little Muggle barbecue (courtesy of Aunt Hermione) at The Burrow next Monday.

So he walks over with his plate of greasy chicken wings and sits down beside her. "You have to get over Toby," he tells her bluntly.

Rose gapes at him for a few seconds before blushing furiously. She returns to ripping the foil off a charred baked potato. She waits until all the silvery strips are off before she answers stiffly, "That's none of your business."

"It fucking _is_ , because I see how disappointed you get whenever Toby goes off with Caitlyn," Scorpius picks up a chicken wing and sinks his teeth into it. "And, well—you know—you're a friend, Weasley, and it's—it's not nice, seeing you so sad and hung up on him." He's inarticulate at best when it comes to expressing his feelings, but that'll have to do.

Rose looks at him like he just spouted off poetry, or something. "Why, Scorpius, I do believe that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me," Rose starts snorting with laughter. It's so infectious Scorpius breaks out in a grin a second later.

"Well?" he presses.

Rose frowns and purses her lips. "Believe me, if I knew how to get over him, I'd have done that by now," she bows her head and lets out a small sigh.

(Not exactly the answer he's looking for, but he guesses it's enough for now.)

-.-.-

A few hours later, Uncle George sets off some of his famous fireworks and everyone lies down on the grass to enjoy the display. There's gigantic Catherine Wheels, fiery dragons, rockets and showers of multi-coloured sparks. The summer night air is pleasantly warm, his fingers are still sticky from barbecue sauce, and grass is poking him in the back. He thinks he won't be able to forget this moment, even if he tried.

(Plus, Rose lies down next to him and he fucking likes it when her thigh brushes up against his. Multiple times.)

-.-.-

It's his last two weeks of summer and he's in The Burrow, helping Grandma Weasley and Mrs Potter prepare for dinner tonight when his mother bursts through the door, crying hysterically. Scorpius is frozen in shock, but Mrs Potter gets to her before he does.

"I can't bloody stand him anymore!" Astoria sets several large suitcases down on the floor and starts sobbing. Mrs Potter runs a hand up and down her back soothingly, and she has the good sense not to ask any questions yet.

(Scorpius thinks he knows what – or whom his mother is talking about.)

"It's become unbearable, living in that house," his mother palms her cheeks. "Can I possibly stay here for a few days?"

Scorpius drops his dish cloth and goes over uncertainly. "Mum? Is everything alright?"

His mother looks up with red, puffy eyes. "Oh, Scor," she lets out a tired, ragged breath. "I'm sorry you had to see this."

She pulls him into a hug and Scorpius doesn't even protest like he usually does.

-.-.-

A few days later, it's nine in the morning and Scorpius is done with his daily run. He reaches for a cold glass of milk on the breakfast laden table (Grandma Molly is _amazing_ ) and nearly spits the milk out again when over ten owls soar noisily through an open window, scaring him shitless.

"Hogwarts letters are here!" he hollers as loudly as he can. He reaches for a tawny owl and rips his letter off its claws carefully. Rose, Toby, Caitlyn, James, Lily and a whole bunch of other people thunder down the stairs, rubbing their eyes sleepily and stretching. They accost the hooting owls and there's a brief, excited cacophony of ripping paper.

"I'm Quidditch captain!" James Potter announces in an almost surprised tone, and everyone claps him on the back.

His letter has all the usual stuff – book lists, a reminder for OWLs. Scorpius stuffs all the parchment back and notices Toby gawping at his letter with a gobsmacked expression on his face.

Albus, who's done perusing the contents of his letters, glances over at Toby and lets out a whoop. "Toby is _Prefect_!"

Scorpius sees the glint of his Prefect's badge as Toby holds it up and he starts laughing and guffawing, because yeah, he should've expected it.

Toby goes red and starts stuttering. "Prefect? But—what—"

"I'm a Prefect, too!" Rose lets out an ecstatic, blissful squeal and throws her arms around Toby's neck. His arm automatically goes around Rose's waist and hugs her back. She's lifted a few inches into the air and they're both laughing.

"Congratulations," he mumbles against her red hair. Rose smiles and pulls away. Caitlyn observes all this with an undecipherable expression on her face.

(Scorpius has stopped laughing completely.)

-.-.-

They have a small party that night to celebrate Toby and Rose's newly appointed Prefect status and James' captainship. Grandma Molly cooks all their favourite things for a gigantic feast. Toby, Caitlyn, Albus, Rose and Scorpius manage to sneak out with a half-full bottle of mead the grown-ups were drinking. They take turns sipping the rich, golden liquid on their hill and Scorpius _loves_ the way it burns on the way down.

Rose and Caitlyn refuse to swallow a single drop of mead, but after much persuasion Caitlyn relents. Rose lectures them on the effects of alcoholic consumption and eventually says she's only going to drink _one_ sip, that's all.

Then one sip turns into five and before Rose knows it she's drunk.

Turns out Drunk Rose talks even more than Normal Rose. She babbles on and on about all sorts of shit and she starts dancing around a little, swaying to some beat none of them can hear and asking them _repeatedly_ , "Don't the stars just look so-o-o incredible tonight?" in this dreamy, slurred voice.

He thinks Rose's low tolerance for alcohol (seriously, she had like _five_ mouthfuls) is kind of cute.

Scorpius hasn't laughed so hard in _months_. He almost manages to forget the fact that Toby and Rose are going to be spending a _lot_ more time together on patrols and Prefect duties and shit this year.

-.-.-

The train ride to Hogwarts the very next day is total chaos. _Everyone_ oversleeps because of the crazy party the night before and there's a lot of confusion as everyone tries to make their way through the utter pandemonium in The Burrow. Books are flying, luggages are being tripped over and there's a lot of screaming. Scorpius does a fair bit of yelling himself when he discovers that all his books for fifth-year seem to have disappeared (he finds them later under the sink in the kitchen, stacked neatly in a pile and he has no fucking idea how they even _got_ there).

They board the Hogwarts Express with several seconds to spare and they're laughing breathlessly because, yeah, the whole thing is sort of hilarious. They find a compartment to squeeze into but then Rose announces that she and Toby are going to have to go over to the Prefect's Carriage.

(The train ride is suddenly a lot less fun.)

-.-.-

They still meet up every other morning at the Black Lake, though.

"I've already drawn up a study timetable for the both of us," Rose announces the moment he steps over and sits down. She presents him the most complicated timetable Scorpius has ever seen. There's illustrations, graphs, and even a pie chart on it. "This should help some with your study schedule, because I've already told you plenty of times before — getting good grades in your OWLs is imperative in ensuring yourself a good future and a stable job."

Scorpius examines the timetable for a moment. "OWLs are in _April_. And it's October."

"I know! I really should get started on revising, but my Prefect duties are eating up a huge chunk of my time," Rose says, anxiously chewing on her lower lip. "You won't believe how dull my patrols can get."

"Who d'you patrol with?" Scorpius asks idly with his eyes closed and her timetable stuffed carefully in his pocket.

Rose pauses for a bit and shoots him a guilty look. "Toby."

Scorpius sighs. "Does Caitlyn know?"

"No, not exactly."

"You know, you're going to destroy Caitlyn when she finds out," Scorpius stares up at the blue, cloudless sky. "You're her best friend."

Rose looks shamed for a moment but she quirks an eyebrow. "Whatever's going on between Toby and me is pretty much one-sided, anyway."

"No, it isn't. Toby's fucking _likes_ you," Scorpius replies, without much thought.

Rose lights up like a bloody Christmas tree. "Wait—what?" she splutters.

(He swears, if it were possible, he'd kick himself hard in the arse right now.)

-.-.-

In Potions he gets a new partner, Yvonne Edgecombe. She's pretty much useless as a partner in Potions because all she does is flutter her eyelashes and preen when he's around.

(Toby and Rose are partners _again_. This is getting ridiculous.)

-.-.-

He's got Yvonne pinned under him in a random broom closet in the third-floor corridor. The broom closet is tiny and something is poking him in his back, but he's far too distracted because both their shirts are off and Yvonne is running her hands down his chest.

"Scor," She says breathily, and Scorpius tightens his grip on the back of her head as he snogs her hard on her mouth. He leaves a trail of kisses on her pale neck and her skin is hot and flush against his.

She arches, purring, as Scorpius dances his fingers across her bare stomach. Yvonne's gasps sound deafening in the cramped space of the broom closet. He's about to tell her to keep it down a little —the Prefects are doing their nightly patrols — when she reaches behind her and unsnaps her bra. She giggles when Scorpius groans and licks his lips a little because, this? So _hot_.

She's reaches up for him for another kiss when the broom closet door swings open and Rose and Toby are standing there with disapproving expressions on their faces. Rose instantly lets out a cry of horror. "Merlin!"

Toby starts snickering. "Should've known it was you, Scor."

Yvonne presses her shirt up against her bare chest and says, "Oops." Her lips are swollen and her eyes look dazed.

"I should give you detention for this behaviour!" Rose cries, outraged. "What—inappropriate—never—"

(If she thinks that Scorpius doesn't notice the way her eyes linger on his chest, then she's sorely mistaken.)

Scorpius tosses on his crumpled shirt and robes (he's a little disappointed that their snogging session was cut short) and he stumbles out of the broom closet. "We'll be going now." He waves dismissively at Toby and Rose, smirking. "C'mon, love," he tugs Yvonne away by her hand and they both disappear down the corridor.

(They resume snogging in another shadowy corner five minutes later.)

-.-.-

Predictably, Rose gives him a small lecture on abstinence and self-control a few mornings later when they meet up again at the Black Lake.

"I'm aware that as a testosterone charged teenage boy, you are sometimes unable to control your urges. But please, do keep away from broom closets," Rose says, half-reprimanding and half-amused.

"Oh, stop complaining, Weasley," Scorpius snatches a piece of marmalade on toast from Rose's hands. "You _know_ you like it when you see me getting in on with someone else."

Rose rolls her eyes. "Your excessive promiscuity is frightening. Not to mention worrying. I've heard all sorts of unbelievable things about you from other girls, you know," she eases herself off the weathered rock and settles herself on the grass next to Scorpius. He's pleasantly surprised – she's never done that before. They lie down side by side on the grass. She removes her shoes slowly and toes off her socks.

"What sort of things?" he says, interest piqued.

He almost misses the flush that creeps up her neck and ears. "Oh, you know. Stupid stuff."

He turns over on his side and stares intently at Rose. She looking at anywhere but him. "Weasley. _Tell me_."

(He's got a faint inkling of what it is but he wants to hear her _say_ it out loud.)

"No," Rose shoots him an irritated look. "I will not. And judging by that revolting look on your face, I think you already know. So I'm not saying anything."

In a flash, Scorpius has her pinned down with his arms. She's laughing and shoving against his chest and telling him _get off,_ but of course he doesn't listen.

He's got a grin on his face when he puts both his hands on either side of her head (he makes sure not to press on any of her hair, though). He leans down slowly. Her breathless snorts of laughter trail off and Rose stares up at him, a question in her eyes.

"Tell me," he says, and his face is so close to hers their noses are an inch apart. He thinks that she might be holding her breath.

"They—they talk about your—your skills," Rose says in a voice that's barely audible. He moves in closer. The tips of their noses are now brushing. "Mostly about—what you can do. Scorpius—what are you _doing_?"

(Fuck, he really, really wants to kiss her right now.)

He rolls off Rose and manages to let out a smug snicker. "My skills, huh?"

Rose punches him on his arm, looking repulsed, and everything is back to normal.

-.-.-

He's eating breakfast at the Slytherin table with Albus when Caitlyn suddenly appears through the Great Hall doors and stomps over.

"Hello, Caitlyn," Albus greets. "Are you done with lunch...?" his voice slowly peters out when he sees that Caitlyn's face is red and her eyes are swollen from crying.

"Toby cheated on me!" she wails, and noisily takes a seat opposite of them. She starts bawling afresh. Both Albus and Scorpius choke on their eggs because _what_? Toby cheating? He just wasn't that kind of bloke.

"He—he—cheated on me! The bloody wanker! Fucking—tosser—" Caitlyn starts spitting out every expletive she can think of. Scorpius and Albus give each other flabbergasted looks. "I saw him kissing _Rose_! My fucking _best friend_ Rose!"

(Something in Scorpius' stomach clenches tightly.)

"They were on their bloody nightly patrols and—and I was out looking for Toby because I had to kiss him goodnight before I went to bed—and there he was! Kissing Rose!" her hands flail around hysterically. Albus reaches over to comfort her.

"I'm sure it was a mistake," Albus says doubtfully. "I mean, Toby's in love with you."

"I know," she sobs. "That's what makes—makes it worse, because he just told me he loved me for the first time a week ago!"

"How could he be kissing Rose? He doesn't even like her! And I'm pretty sure Rose doesn't like him either," Albus says soothingly.

(Scorpius debates telling Albus that, yes, Toby actually _does_ kind of like Rose, and Rose is fucking in love with Toby, but this is Toby's fucking problem so he'll stay out of it.)

"I'm never talking to him again!" Caitlyn claims dramatically, fingers combing shakily through her tangled hair.

-.-.-

By the end of the day Toby and Caitlyn are the perfect couple again. He witnesses it all himself—Toby bursts late into Herbology, scaring everyone as he desperately tells Caitlyn that he's so sorry and that the kiss never meant anything and that he loves her so much. Caitlyn practically melts on the spot and she throws her hands around him. Everyone in the greenhouse applauds, but Rose (who's listening to every word in the corner) looks like she's about to burst into tears at any moment.

Scorpius turns back to his potted Libyan Locust Lilies and savagely snaps off a branch.

-.-.-

He tries to talk to her all day but Rose is purposely avoiding him. So he corners her after Divination. Rose's eyes aren't red or puffy (thank Merlin – he always feels lost and useless around crying girls) but her lips are pressed together in a tight line.

"Are you alright, Weasley?" he asks quietly, and he awkwardly pulls her in for a hug, because the look on her face tells him that she needs one. Desperately. Especially since Caitlyn probably isn't talking to her anymore. Rose hugs him back half-heartedly.

"Yes. I suppose I'm alright," she exhales noisily. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really, really need to take your advice and get over Toby." She tucks her head under his chin and they stay like that for a few more moments before Rose breaks away and says that she's going to go to the library for some light reading.

(Scorpius follows and they spend the rest of the afternoon nestled up in the library together.)

-.-.-

That night, Albus and Scorpius accost him when he returns to their dormitory.

"Tell us what's fucking going on, mate," Albus glares at Toby, who shrinks back against the wall, looking faintly terrified. "You snogged my cousin! And hurt Caitlyn!"

"I fucked up. I'm pretty bloody confused myself," Toby admits. "But you two have to promise not to rip me apart from limb to limb, alright?"

Both of them stare stonily back.

Toby sighs. "Alright, so, Rose and I were patrolling corridors yesterday night. And, well, it gets pretty boring after a while, especially if there's no one to give detention to. So we stopped for a while by Gryffindor's common room portrait – you know, the one with the huge lady – to rest, and I—I dunno, we just started talking and I've liked Rose for a pretty long time—"

"What?" Albus yelps at this confession. "Since _when_?"

"I dunno – near the end of third year, probably," Toby says sheepishly. "I honestly don't know what got over me. I shouldn't have done that at all, I know. I feel like a complete git. So, we were talking, and then there was this huge pause. Rose was kind of looking at me with this—this expression, so I just leaned down and—and kissed her." He looks shamed. "I'm bloody confused. I mean, I love Caitlyn but I like Rose too so I have _no_ idea what's going on."

Scorpius shakes his head. "Do you know how much you hurt Rose? I mean, she has this huge crush on you."

Albus' head whips around. "Wait, _seriously_?" his jaw unhinges.

Toby nods miserably. "Yeah, I know."

"Rose likes Toby?" Albus gawps.

"So, Caitlyn's totally forgiven you?" Scorpius interjects, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, more or less," Toby says unhappily. "I'll go apologize to Rose tomorrow. It was a stupid thing to do — promise it won't happen again."

"Just make sure you don't hurt her again," Scorpius snarls, still not quite managing to forgive Toby completely.

Albus and Toby give him perplexed looks. "Er—you're being very protective," Albus says.

Scorpius is about to say of course he's protective, they're _friends_ , for Merlin's sake, when he remembers that nobody knows about their frequent little meetings at the Black Lake and how Rose practically tells him everything that's going on in her life, so of course he doesn't want her all depressed and heartbroken or anything.

(Fuck, he sounds like he's such a disgusting sop. This has _got_ to stop.)

So he says, "I've known her for five years, of course I don't want to see this, you know, happening."

Albus and Toby seem to accept this, and Toby slumps into his bed. "'Night, everyone," he mumbles into his pillow.

-.-.-

A few mornings later, Rose tells him that Toby gave her a very long, satisfying apology whilst patrolling together and she's forgiven him. He can tell that she's trying very hard to sound non-committal and all, but he knows that she's all moony and starry-eyed for Toby. Again.

(What _is_ it about Toby's I'm-such-a-lovable-idiot-please-forgive-me routine that has Rose and Caitlyn swooning?)

"How was it, by the way?" Scorpius interrupts her tirade. Rose's brow furrows.

"How was what?"

"The kiss."

Rose turns red. "It was very, very nice," she says with this faraway look on her face.

(He translates this mentally to, "It was fucking fantastic.")

"But... I was better though, right?" he says with a grin, and Rose rolls her eyes.

(He's kind of glad that he was her first instead of Toby.)

-.-.-

Their first Quidditch match of the year is against Ravenclaw. Scorpius catches the Snitch in fifteen minutes and they win two hundred to sixty. Yvonne Edgecombe rewards him by going down on Scorpius for the first time ever, and she does this thing with her tongue that has him seeing stars.

(It's amazing as fuck, and he definitely wants to do it again.)

-.-.-

It starts snowing somewhere in the middle of January. The snow is seven feet thick, and nearly the entire school spends their Saturdays and Sundays outside, having huge free-for-all snowball fights. Rose charms a long piece of wood for a snow sled, and most of the fifth-years in their classes race each other down uneven slopes.

Scorpius stands at the top of a particular steep one. He adjusts his gloves and he's about to launch himself down when he catches sight of Rose losing control of her sled and colliding into Toby. Snow explodes around them and when it eventually clears Toby and Rose are all tangled together at the bottom of the slope, laughing.

He turns his head to look elsewhere, and sees Caitlyn giving him a weird expression. It looks like a cross between sudden comprehension and heartbreak.

(He doesn't like it.)

-.-.-

Christmas at The Burrow is strange.

Turns out his mother is still living there temporarily, and she's now kind of best friends with Grandma Molly and Mrs Potter. He finds her cutting carrots with Grandma Molly when Scorpius and the Weasley-Potter clan get back from King's Cross Station.

"Hello, Scorpius darling," his mother greets. She looks a lot happier than she was last summer, so Scorpius supposes that's good thing.

Then Grandma Molly lugs out an entire box of knitted jumpers and says, "Come and get your jumpers!"

He hangs back and watches as a whole crowd of people rummage around in the box and pull on their respective jumpers. Shocked isn't a good enough word to describe what he feels when Albus holds up a serpent-green one with the letter S in white on the front. "Here's yours!" he waves the jumper in the air and chucks it.

Scorpius catches it and stares. Then he looks up at Grandma Molly, who gives him a warm smile. "I thought I'd knit one for you this year."

Scorpius swallows back the lump in his throat and tugs it over his head. The sleeves are a little too long but otherwise it fits perfectly. The gesture seems simple, but somehow it feels like a _really_ big deal. He knows how horrible the Malfoys were to the Weasleys even before he was born. His father still has some grudge against them, for Merlin's sake.

He finds himself at a loss for words, so he reaches over and gives Grandma Molly a long hug instead.

(When Grandma Molly pulls away, her eyes look a little shinier than usual, so Scorpius thinks she knows what he was trying to convey.)

-.-.-

Rose and Toby act differently around each other now. Scorpius isn't even sure how to properly explain it, but it's as though they're more... aware of each other now. When Rose comes into the room, Toby brightens up considerably. They inevitably end up sitting together during meals. Rose laughs more when Toby's around.

(He has no idea what to think of this.)

-.-.-

He comes down to the kitchen one day to see Caitlyn standing at a window, looking out with a pensive expression on her face. Scorpius walks over and peers out with her. Outside, Toby and Rose are walking together beyond The Burrow's fence. They're not holding hands or any of that shit but what he sees is pretty obvious—two people disgustingly smitten with each other.

Caitlyn murmurs, "I think he's in love with someone else now." She's not hysterical or anything, which kind of makes it creepier.

"Yeah," Scorpius looks away.

-.-.-

It's the night after the Christmas feast and he finds Rose sitting on the kitchen countertop with her legs tucked underneath her. A steaming mug of hot chocolate is cradled in her hands.

"Nice jumper," Rose smiles and cocks her head at his torso. "The green looks good on you."

"Thanks," he mixes himself up some hot chocolate too. Scorpius heaves himself up on the countertop beside her. "Couldn't sleep?" he takes a long sip.

Rose shakes her head. Something is off about her. "If I tell you something, will you promise not to breathe a word about to anyone?"

Scorpius' ears perk up. "Sure."

"I _mean_ it, Scorpius," Rose looks up at him with her big brown eyes. "You can't even tell Albus. Or certainly not Caitlyn. This is between us and us only."

(He kind of likes the way that sounds.)

"Alright, so tell me," He swings his legs back and forth.

"Toby and I kissed today," she blurts out. Scorpius immediately springs to his feet, blood boiling.

"Again?! I'm going to fucking _kill_ him—" Scorpius growls, because bloody hell, what's wrong with Toby? If he wants Caitlyn, then stick to Caitlyn. This is just leading Rose on.

"Scorpius, _I_ kissed _him_."

Somehow this is a big (huge) difference. "Okay," Scorpius says finally.

"I just wanted you to hear it from me, not from others," Rose bites her bottom lip and stares into her empty cup. "We were sitting outside on the veranda, talking about something I can't really remember, and then it just—it just happened. And—"

"Why are you telling me all this?" Scorpius cuts in, not wanting to hear more.

"Because—" Rose looks up and glares. "You're my only friend, Scorpius. Caitlyn's forgiven me for the thing with Toby a few weeks ago but things aren't really the same anymore. And I certainly don't blame her for it. I did something awful. I'm sorry if you feel like I'm—I'm pushing all my problems on you or something... but I really need someone to talk to now."

So Scorpius hops off the countertop and listens.

"I'm just a little confused—" Great, Scorpius thinks, first Toby now Rose. "—and I don't really know what to do. So I kind of need your opinion. Even though you're probably the last one anyone would go to for relationship advice," she adds as an afterthought. This is probably the first time he's heard Rose sound so unsure and vulnerable and he hates the fact that it's all because of Toby-sodding-Arlington.

"I don't _have_ any advice," Scorpius says. "Except maybe to back the fuck off or at least wait until Toby's broken up with Caitlyn. Which is probably going to happen soon, because Caitlyn knows exactly what's going on between the two of you. I don't know what the bloody hell you guys are doing behind her back, and I don't really want to know—"

Rose's brow furrows and he can tell he's hurt her. "You're such a bloody hypocrite!" she shouts. She pushes her mug aside and unfolds her legs. "I can't believe you have the _nerve_ to lecture me about me and Toby! I mean, you snog a different girl every week!"

"At least I don't do it behind their boyfriend's back!" Scorpius snarls. Rose's face darkens in shame, and he knows he's said too much.

They fall silent for a few tense seconds, both of them heaving with heightened emotions. Their ugly exchange hangs in the air between them. Without thinking about it, he leans over and kisses her.

(He doesn't really know why. It could be the fact that he's wanted to do it since that day at the Black Lake when he pinned her down.)

She freezes for a moment but when she starts kissing him back, Scorpius' brain shrinks by roughly seventy-percent. He briefly wonders just how much kissing Toby and Rose has been doing, because Rose is pretty fucking good. Then he pushes any and all thoughts of Toby out of his mind and concentrates on the task at hand. Which is, of course, kissing her senseless.

He moves in so that he's standing between her pale legs and her tiny hands wrap around his neck, pressing him closer. His fingers dance along her spine and his mind goes blank when her tongue flickers against his bottom lip. This is fucking _crazy_ , Scorpius thinks dazedly, but the thought is quickly wiped out when Rose's legs hook themselves around his waist.

His mouth leaves hers (Rose lets out this sound of protest from the back of her throat) and he kisses his way down her jaw, her ears, and he discovers that the spot where her neck meets her shoulders is particularly sensitive. Her fingers trail along the tops of his jeans, and then—

And then Rose pushes him away, gasping. Scorpius automatically leans in for more (he's not even _close_ to finished) but she manages to wriggle out of his arms.

"What the bloody hell was _that_ for?" she asks, lips red from the kissing.

He shrugs. "I just wanted to."

They stand like that for a few more moments, both breathing heavily. Then Rose says, "I'm still angry at you," and she practically flees back upstairs.

(Scorpius takes a cold shower before he goes to bed.)

-.-.-

He doesn't get another chance to talk to Rose until after Christmas Break is over. He pulls Rose out of their train compartment and quickly says, "I'm sorry," before she can run away, or scream at him, or maybe both.

"For the things you said about me or the kiss?" Rose asks, folding her arms across her chest. She blushes a little when she mentions the kiss, and Scorpius takes that as a good sign.

"What kiss?" he feigns an innocent expression, and Rose just has to smile.

-.-.-

He skips Potions for the whole week because the thought of having to watch Toby and Rose make revolting googly eyes at each other makes him kind of sick. Plus, Yvonne is kind of getting on his nerves now.

-.-.-

He knows that it was only a matter of time before it happened, but news of Toby and Caitlyn breaking up (for good) is spreads all over the school in the matter of hours. Even so, he still feels like punching someone's lights out when he hears.

-.-.-

Albus insists on holding this gigantic party at the Slytherin common room when it's his sixteenth birthday. James and Fred sneak in a huge barrel of Firewhiskey and almost everyone is invited. They tell several house elves to keep guard outside the entrance, and by midnight the party is in full swing. He gets totally bladdered. When it's nearly two, a gorgeous sixth-year Slytherin named Clementine leads him up to her dorm and he loses his virginity.

(This just might be the best party ever.)

-.-.-

He decides that he's really got to sit down properly and do some studying for his upcoming OWLs. Rose is ecstatic and she insists that he study with her.

"It'll be fun," she says. So he turns up at the library the next day but sees that Toby is already in _his_ armchair opposite of Rose. Toby looks up at him, surprised, when he approaches.

"Hey, Scor," Toby greets, and Scorpius nods in response, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"Oh, hello, Scorpius!" Rose says cheerily, her eyes brighter than usual. "Come over and sit down here," she pats another vacant armchair.

Scorpius hesitates for a moment. "No, thanks. Sorry—busy."

And he quickly walks away before Rose can call him back.

-.-.-

Fuck, he really should've started studying earlier.

It's two weeks to OWLs. Albus and Scorpius are frantically trying to cram five years worth of magical education into their exhausted brains. Albus keeps attempting to transfigure his teacup into a turtle but all it does is turn it green and hard. Toby is muttering some Charms incantation under his breath. Scorpius has been reading his copy of _One Thousand and One Magical Herbs and Fungi_ for so long his eyes are watering.

"Feraverto!" Albus hisses, jabbing his wand at the teacup again. Nothing happens. "Feraverto! Fera-fucking-verto, why can't you just fucking turn into a fucking turtle! Fuck!" he yells at the teacup, and throws his wand across the room. It emits a shower of red sparks when it falls and the carpet is set on fire.

(Scorpius would laugh but he frankly doesn't have enough energy to.)

-.-.-

A day before OWLs, Rose completely flips. He finds her in the Courtyard one day when she's supposed to be at Arithmancy. It's how he knows something is up, because Rose Weasley never, ever misses a class. _Ever_.

"I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this," she keeps repeating over and over again. Her eyes are wild and she's shivering uncontrollably. "I'm going to fail everything and my future will be ruined and I won't ever be able to take my NEWTs and I'm going to get expelled from Hogwarts because of my poor academic performance—" she babbles.

Scorpius grabs both of her shoulders with his hands and looks at her dead in the eye. She gulps and stares back.

"Rose. Listen to me," he says slowly, and Scorpius hopes she gets every word. "You have been the top of every class in our year since first year. You are one of the smartest witches of your time. You've been preparing for your OWLs since you were in fourth year. You are _not_ going to fail. In fact, you're going to get Os in everything. You're smart. You're amazing. You're brilliant. You are going to _ace_ this. Okay?"

Rose's breathing slows and she nods shakily. "Okay."

-.-.-

OWLs are an agonizing week of torture. He completely fucked up in Divination when he told the examiner that he was going to have ten gnome children by the time he was thirty. But Divination is a huge joke, anyway, so he's pretty sure his future'll still be okay if he gets a huge Troll. He's pretty sure his Astronomy is done for because he was halfway through his huge, complicated chart when he realized that it was upside down. He confused "Alarte Ascendare" with "Alacarte Axendar" in Charms.

But he's actually thinks he did alright. He knows he didn't fail everything, anyway.

-.-.-

His last two weeks at Hogwarts are pure, unadulterated bliss. All of his professors aren't teaching anything anymore so he spends most of his time outside in the sun, sitting in a circle with Caitlyn, Toby, Rose and Albus as they talk. Things are still kinda weird between Caitlyn, Toby, and Rose, but the end-of-exams atmosphere manages to ease tensions a little.

He knows it'll probably never be the same again though — he definitely notices that Rose and Caitlyn don't talk as much anymore.

-.-.-

Two days before they leave Hogwarts for summer holidays at The Burrow, Toby bounds in to their dorm while he's packing.

"Scor!" he yells, hardly able to contain his excitement. "I've got the best news ever!"

Scorpius gets a sinking feeling in his stomach and he thinks he already knows what Toby is going to say.

Toby giddily flops onto his dorm bed. "Rose is my girlfriend. I asked her and she said yes! Can you believe it?"

(He wishes he didn't have to.)

* * *

**A/N: Hope you liked it! Let me know what you think.**


	3. Sixth Year

* * *

**Sixth Year**

* * *

It's summer at The Burrow and things are noticeably different now.

The Quidditch matches, wild barbeque parties and Grandma Molly's lemonade are all still the same, but it's subtle changes that Scorpius can't help but notice.

Now that Rose and Toby are pretty much joined at the hip, he spends a lot of his time lazing around with Albus and Caitlyn instead, while Rose and Toby sneak off to wherever. Because of this, the five of them have now sort of split into Albus-Caitlyn-Scorpius and Rose-Toby.

(He doesn't really want to think too much about where they go and what they do when they go off together, because this shouldn't bother him in the least.)

It's hard to describe what's going on between them, but it's as though Rose and Toby are in their own little world or something when they're together. It's odd, because this never happened when Toby was with Caitlyn. He doesn't really care at first, but this whole Rose-Toby thing starts getting annoying when he realizes that he doesn't get to spend as much time with Rose as he'd used to.

(Shut up. They're friends, alright?)

This becomes especially evident when it's a week into their summer holidays and Scorpius is out running his usual morning laps around The Burrow. It's a beautiful morning and he's kind of, _maybe,_ looking forward to hanging around Rose at the pond like they did every other morning last summer. They've barely talked since the holidays began, after all.

When he rounds a corner, panting and gasping, he sees Rose-and-Toby all curled up in each other's arms, lying down on the dewy grass and giggling about something. His mood worsens immediately and he jogs past without a single word. Because, fuck, he's not going to plop himself between them and become a third wheel. That's just pathetic and sad. Besides, they're probably whispering sweet nothings to each other right now and seriously, Scorpius doesn't need to hear that.

(He doesn't think they even notice he's was there.)

He's irritated about this, yeah, but he's been expecting it. They're a legitimate couple now, so this is just one of the many gag-worthy, lovey-dovey things they will be participating in.

But then it happens every. Single. Bloody. Morning.

Not only that, Toby practically monopolizes Rose for the entire summer. Every time he talks to her, Toby's right by her side. Yeah, Toby's his best mate and all, but it's weird to be talking to Rose when Toby is hanging on every word. There's some things that he'd like to be just between him and Rose. Also, the constant being-in-love-is-amazing look on their faces is nauseating (especially on Toby.)

Scorpius, Albus and Caitlyn are all lying down on the small slope by The Burrow, exhausted after a strenuous Quidditch game when Scorpius decides to bring this up.

"Have any of you both actually properly talked to Rose-and-Toby this few weeks?" he raises his glass of warm lemonade and takes a sip.

Albus, with his arms folded behind his head, snorts. "Believe me, I've tried," he plucks up several blades of grass and throws them into the air lazily. "I can barely get a word in edgewise before Toby cuts in. He's so whipped," he chuckles.

Caitlyn shrugs and readjusts her yellow heart-shaped Muggle sunglasses. "I dunno. I actually prefer it when they're not here. I'm not a huge fan of public displays of affection."

Scorpius feels a tiny stab of awkward embarrassment and mentally berates himself for mentioning her best friend and her ex-boyfriend. He opens his mouth to mutter an apology or something but Caitlyn laughs when she looks at the expression on her face.

"Relax, Scor. I'm pretty much over him," she lifts up her sunglasses for a moment to smile at him, but the smile is strained and tense so Scorpius knows that she's basically lying through her teeth. "We weren't together for that long, and it was just a silly fling." A brief bolt of angry annoyance shoots through him—you'd think Rose-and-Toby would be more subtle around her.

Albus pushes up his glasses and makes a small noise of sympathy. "If it makes you feel any better," he says, grinning. "I think you and Toby looked better together."

"But late for that, isn't it? Too bad I don't give a shit anymore. Besides, Toby was a wanker, anyway," she flips her cornsilk hair back and smiles angelically.

This sends Albus into a fit of minor hysterics. Scorpius is mildly impressed—he's never heard her curse so much before.

"Yeah, well, I suppose we've got to get used to it," Albus says doubtfully after he's done laughing. "They don't look like they're going to break up anytime soon."

(It's the most disheartening thing Scorpius has heard all summer.)

"At least Rose-and-Toby are happy," Caitlyn says this neutrally, but Scorpius can't help but detect a whole lot of bitterness and resentment underneath that dispassionate, calm exterior.

(He suddenly realizes that he and Caitlyn may have a lot more in common than he thought.)

-.-.-

Scorpius wakes up one morning to a shrieking, squealing red-headed girl bouncing on his bed.

It takes him a moment to realize that this girl is Rose Weasley.

It takes him another moment to realize that she is practically straddling him.

This he does not entirely hate. In fact, it feels so good he has to stop for a moment to remind himself that _she has a bloody boyfriend_.)

(Not to mention the fact that said boyfriend is his best mate.)

"Scorpius!" she practically yells and shoves a letter into his face. "OWL results are in!" Her eyes are all brown and shiny. He blinks his eyes and pulls himself up blearily. It takes a brief second for him to take in the Hogwarts seal on the front of the envelope.

"Holy fuck," he mutters and rips his letter open with a finger. He knew results were coming in but he wasn't expecting them for another week or so.

Rose punches the air with both fists. "I got straight Os!" she looks like she's about to burst with joy. And, well, Scorpius is happy for her and all, but Rose needs to get off him. Because right now she's bouncing around in excitement and a rather pressing problem is arising. Literally.

(Look, can you blame him? Rose is sitting on his fucking lap. The shorts she's wearing don't exactly help either.)

Scorpius props himself up on his elbows. He hesitates a little before ripping it open. His results tumble down and he examines the little slip.

"Straight Os too," he smiles.

Rose pitches forward and gives Scorpius a bone-crushing hug. "I knew it!" she says, laughing. She shifts a little in his lap and Scorpius tenses all over.

"Rose," he says calmly. "I think you should get off now."

She pulls back and looks at him confusedly. "What? Why?"

"It's morning. And you're straddling me. And I'm a hormonal sixteen-year-old teenage bloke. You figure it out," he gives her a pointed look. The penny finally drops and Rose's entire face floods with a frankly delicious shade of red. Her jaw unhinges and she wordlessly climbs down his bed. She's so embarrassed he can't even meet his eyes.

(He thinks it's hilarious how mortified Rose is.)

"Oh Merlin, I'm sorry, I didn't realize—" Rose stammers.

"Oh, don't apologize," he grins and stretches out on his bed. "That's the best wakeup call I've had all summer."

(The outraged, scandalized face Rose gives him after he says that just makes it even better.)

-.-.-

When he goes down for breakfast later, he's greeted by the sight of nearly everyone in the Weasley-Potter clan gathered around the kitchen table. There's a huge, hastily constructed banner dangling from the ceiling that reads "Congratulations—You Passed Your OWLs" with a gigantic, wobbly exclamation mark behind.

Grandma Molly has whipped up a whole stack of her special blueberry pancakes and they're quickly disappearing so Scorpius hurriedly grabs a few pieces and dumps them on a plate. A few of the grown-ups congratulate him on his straight Os—Mr Potter shakes his hand, Grandma Molly gives him a monster hug, James Potter claps him heartily on the back (Scorpius finds out later that James got Head Boy). He pulls out a stool and is in the process of wolfing down his five pancakes in the shortest time possible when the fireplace bursts into green flames and his mother appears.

"Mum!" his jaw drops.

"Scorpius!" she cries, smiling. She picks up her formal, green robes and runs over to envelop him in an embrace. "Straight Os! Oh, you make me so proud!" she exclaims tearfully.

It's embarrassing, yes—especially in front of all the Weasley-Potters— but he hasn't seen his mother in months and he sort of misses her so he lets her do it. There's a collective "aww" from everyone at the table and several of them warmly welcome Scorpius' mum into their midst.

(It surprises her just how close his mum has gotten with the Weasley-Potters.)

-.-.-

His mum pulls him aside after he's done with breakfast. She brings him over to The Burrow's kitchen and they stand by the sink. All her previous happiness and joy has dissipated, and Scorpius is dismayed to see that without her smile, she looks years older. The lines around her eyes and mouth seem to have deepened over the course of several months.

"I have bad news, Scorpius," she lets out a tired breath of air and pinches the bridge of her nose. Several strands of golden hair have come loose from her bun.

His heart sinks. "What is it? What happened?"

"Your father and I... we're no longer living together," Astoria Greengrass looks up and for the first time that day he realizes that he's already taller than his mother.

Scorpius stares, open-mouthed, for several seconds. "You mean... you two have... separated? As in, you're divorced?"

( _What the fuck_?)

"Oh, no," She shakes her head, looking at him anxiously. "I've—I've—temporarily moved out."

Raw panic surges inside him. All of a sudden he feels like he's twelve-years-old again.

Honestly? He saw this coming a mile away. He briefly remembers those two summers he spent at the Malfoy Manor, listening to them row all day. But given the fact that he hasn't really spent any proper time back at home, a part of him sort of assumed that things between his parents are all fine and dandy now. Guilt floods him in waves. But now that it's actually happening, he can barely wrap his head around it.

"We're just going through a rough patch right now, darling," she pulls him in for another hug. He blankly puts his arms around her, head spinning.

"But—why?" his voice comes out all confused and he fucking hates it.

His mother avoids his eyes and washes her hands in the sink. "I'm sure it'll all work out soon," she deliberately avoids his question and gives him a watery smile. Scorpius shuts up when he notices that his mother looks like she's going to burst into tears at any moment.

(The worst part is that he's pretty damn sure that this "rough patch" they're going through is caused by him.)

-.-.-

He spends the whole day sitting out on the loneliest part of the veranda with only a stolen bottle of Firewhiskey for company, completely occupied with his thoughts. He's depressed at first, naturally, but then as he downs more Firewhiskey, the depression morphs into burning resentment and anger.

" _I'm sure it'll all work out soon_ ," he mutters his mother's words from earlier, scoffing bitterly. "Yeah-fucking- _right._ "

That was just the way the Malfoys did things, wasn't it? Turn a blind eye to everything that's less-than-perfect in your life and wait for the shit storm to pass. He scowls when he realizes he's been doing the exact same thing to his family ever since he spent his first summer here when he was in his third year.

Scorpius decides he should really stop psychoanalyzing himself, so he stares up at the slowly darkening violet sky and finishes the last of his Firewhiskey. His head feels pleasantly numb. He turns the bottle around in his hands, sullen and just angry at _everyone_.

"You alright?"

He jumps at the sound of Rose's voice. He turns around and sees her standing there, completely _alone_. She cocks her head, concerned. "You've been out here all day."

"Wow," he says mockingly. "Toby finally fucked off, did he?"

Rose's expression darkens but she doesn't move. "Don't be such a bloody arsehole," she crosses her arms and sits down beside him. "So go on. Tell me. I can tell something's up."

Scorpius wants to tell her to go away and leave him alone, but he finds himself spilling his guts out to her. Like, he literally tells her everything (including all those pathetic self-doubts he has). By the end of his rant, he's thoroughly miserable. She listens to all this without interrupting once and nods every so often.

He leans back against a wooden beam and closes his eyes. He thinks that whoever said telling someone about your problems would make you feel better is a twat. He feels worse than ever.

Rose sits there thinking for a moment, and Scorpius is completely caught off guard when she reaches over to give him a tight hug. She buries her head in the crook of his neck and pulls back a few seconds later.

"You looked like you needed a hug," she explains, smiling a little.

"Right," is all he can say, for some peculiar reason.

(It actually did feel nice.)

"Scorpius, your mum was probably right when she said everything will be fine. These things have a funny way of working themselves out," Rose pushes back a stray strand of her red hair. "I mean, don't all healthy relationships have their occasional speed bump?" she bites her lip and Scorpius suddenly feels this inexplicable urge to bite it for her.

(Bloody hell, where did _that_ come from?)

(...Must be the alcohol.)

"That's bollocks and you know it," he scoffs. "You don't know my father. He's a big fan of holding grudges against people."

Rose is momentarily stuck for words. "It doesn't sound that bad," she insists. "It's probably not about you, anyway—"

"I'm a Malfoy living with the Weasleys," he interrupts. "My family has this whole fucking _history_ of hating you blokes. Do the math."

"I suppose your father wants you to hate us, doesn't he?" she sighs and fiddles with the hem of her top. "Yes, well, I can see why your father would be angry about this, but hasn't he gotten used to it already? I mean, you already come here every summer and for Christmas."

"Fuck if I know. In fact, if I recall correctly, your dad and Mr Potter actually saved his sorry arse once."

They sit in companionable silence for several minutes as night gently falls. He fixes his gaze on Rose contemplatively. "What?" suddenly Rose is self-conscious. She raises an eyebrow and a slow, steady blush rises on her cheeks.

He opens his mouth and—

"Rose!"

Her head snaps towards the direction of Toby's voice. "I'm here!"

Scorpius mentally groans.

Toby jogs into view with a worried expression on his face. He practically collapses with relief when he sees Rose there sitting down on the wooden veranda with him. "There you are!" he pulls Rose up on her feet. "Hey, Scor," he adds as an afterthought.

Scorpius grunts in reply, suddenly disliking him very, very much.

"You were gone for so long!" Toby says, frowning slightly.

(For Merlin's sake.)

"I was talking to Scorpius," she explains, brushing lint off her front. "Sorry."

The bloody hell was she apologizing for? He gives Toby an intentionally hard stare. He raises an eyebrow in return, confused at his animosity. Scorpius watches as Rose-and-Toby link hands together and walk back inside.

-.-.-

Summer quickly comes to a close and as always, the Weasley-Potters commemorate the last day of summer with a large, messy barbecue party. Scorpius grabs a few greasy baked potatoes and goes to sit by Albus and Caitlyn. Rose-and-Toby are, unsurprisingly enough, huddled together in a quieter part of the backyard, giggling and laughing over their plates. The food is seriously amazing and Aunt Hermione has charmed tiny little paper lanterns all over the garden so that everything is lit up.

"Oh, Merlin," Albus moans in orgasmic pleasure as he reverently holds up the most beautifully barbecued chicken wing Scorpius has ever seen. "I'm in _heaven_."

Caitlyn snorts into her jelly pudding. " _Boys,_ " she shakes her head.

"I think this just might be the best barbeque we've ever had," Scorpius decides, spooning up some warm, buttery potato. "Grandma Molly and Aunt Hermione have outdone themselves."

He spends the rest of the night laughing with Albus and Caitlyn. At midnight, Uncle George unleashes his usual horde of magnificent fireworks into the night sky as everyone marvels at them from below.

His good mood is ruined when he accidentally sees Rose-and-Toby snogging like crazy during the fireworks display. Because, goddamn, it's disgusting.

(It also reminds him of the time last summer when _he_ kissed Rose, but he quickly puts it behind him and concentrates on a particularly spectacular cluster of Catherine wheels in the sky.)

-.-.-

September first is, as per usual, utter chaos in The Burrow. The same thing happens—everyone wakes up late, there's a mad rush to get to King's Cross Station by eleven and they make it just in time.

They all clamber into a compartment, sniggering fit to bust because, you know, being late for the Hogwarts Express has pretty much become a yearly tradition for them. The train compartment they pick feels even more cramped than usual, because this year Molly and Lucy Weasley are first-years. Scorpius has a killer headache and his mouth feels like sandpaper (he may or may not have gotten completely piss drunk with Albus, Caitlyn, Rose and Toby last night) but his spirits are reasonably high.

Then James announces that he's off to the Head Boy's compartment and Rose pipes up, "Toby and I have to be going too."

Everyone immediately starts whistling and catcalling. Rose and Toby both blush to the tips of their hair roots and their tiny compartment is filled with laughter.

(Scorpius doesn't find this particularly amusing.)

-.-.-

He's positive that this year is going to be his fucking year when this insanely gorgeous new transfer fifth-year student (Flavia Bochinsky) that literally every sane bloke in school is salivating over suddenly starts paying a lot of attention to Scorpius. He becomes the envy of the entire Hogwarts male population.

(He's pleasantly surprised to discover that Flavia can do some rather remarkable things with her tongue.)

(Their snogging sessions help take his mind off some things.)

-.-.-

It's the third day of school and Scorpius wakes up early in the morning for his laps around the Black Lake. And, well, he's sort of looking forward to it because Rose is usually found sitting by that rock beside the lake. It's sort of their spot now and Scorpius smiles as he remembers how they used to meet up there every other day last year.

She's not there when he starts running, and she still isn't there when he's completely exhausted from twenty solid laps.

(He usually just runs fifteen or so, but he was waiting for Rose to show up.)

-.-.-

The Slytherins have Herbology with the Gryffindors and Scorpius doesn't know what to think when Professor Leech puts them into groups of threes for a special group project (they're each given a potted baby Venemous Tentacula and are told to keep the plant alive for the entire year) and he inevitably ends up with Rose and Toby.

(Professor Leech must really hate him.)

Predictably, Rose immediately snaps into action and starts bossing them around. "Toby, go open that bag of soil. Scorpius, hold this for me, will you?"

Scorpius silently does as he's told—Rose can get really bonkers about studies sometimes, so it's best to just comply meekly. He waits until Toby runs out of Greenhouse Seven to fetch a new pot before he asks Rose lowly, "So tell me—why weren't you at the Black Lake this morning?"

Rose looks up, breathing heavily and wrestling with several tiny Venemous Tentacula tentacles with a giant pair of shears. Her eyes widen slightly. "Oh. Oh, Merlin, Scorpius, I'm sorry! I—uh—I was sort of busy," she says apologetically.

"I practically waited for you all morning," Scorpius continues, grinning slightly. "And don't worry about it, Weasley, it's not like I stay up at night crying about it. I am capable of surviving without you, yeah?" _Unlike some people_ , he thinks sourly when a sorely unwelcome mental image of Toby and that daft grin of his pops into his mind.

"Good to know," she laughs. She turns her head several degrees and the bright morning sunlight catches on her hair. Scorpius is momentarily fascinated by this sight.

(He's forgotten how Rose's hair turns this particular shade of red that he's rather partial to when it's in the sunlight.)

His hand, of its own accord, reaches up to cup Rose's face gently and she instantly stops what she's doing. "Uh, Scorpius?" she raises an eyebrow, looking bewildered.

For some reason Scorpius is not privy to, he slowly uses the pad of his thumb to brush away several clods of dirt on her cheeks. Her skin is soft and warm from the sun. "You've got dirt on you," he explains.

"I got the pot—" Toby falters and Rose practically leaps away. Toby stares at Scorpius with a mixture of something that looks like shock and incredulity. Scorpius sort of just shrugs and gets back to whatever he was doing before.

"Toby! You got the pot!" Rose starts babbling. "Fantastic! Now—just put it over here and I'll dump the soil in while Scorpius grabs hold of the Venemous Tentacula—"

(The fact that Rose's face is _still_ red ten minutes later fills him with a tiny sense of gratification.)

(Also, he completely ignores the stupid, glowering stare Toby keeps shooting him every few minutes.)

-.-.-

Unsurprisingly, Toby corners him after Herbology. Scorpius puts on a disinterested, non-committal look on his face and something inside him heavily approves when he sees Toby's flushed face.

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" Toby demands, brow furrowing. "Don't pretend it didn't happen. I saw it with my own eyes! You were touching her face and—and—I know what you're like with girls, Scor. If you're trying to make her move on her when she's my girlfriend—" he tails off when he sees Scorpius' mask of calm morph into disdain.

"Merlin. Her face was dirty. I was helping her wipe some dirt off," he says, crossing his arms. He looks at Toby directly in the eyes. "And don't be such a fucking hypocrite—remember what you did to Caitlyn?"

(This comes out with a lot more venom and malice than originally intended.)

Toby's mouth falls open. "You—you—" he splutters, turning red with embarrassment. "Caitlyn has nothing to do with this!"

Scorpius simply turns around and walks away because honestly? He can't fucking stand to listen to him blabber on for a second longer.

-.-.-

He spends the next two weeks trying to say as little as possible to Toby-the-Arsehole. Suddenly, everything about Toby irritates him—from that dopey grin that's perpetually stuck on his face to the way his affable nature seems to make everyone love him so damn much.

Scorpius has no idea what's gotten over him—they used to be best mates, for Merlin's sake— but now every time he sees Toby he feels like hitting him with a nasty Bat Bogey Hex.

(The no-strings-attached sex Flavia Bochinsky supplies help immensely when he's feeling particularly frustrated.)

It takes only a few days before Albus figures out something's up with his two best mates. Albus finally asks him what's going on after a particularly awkward and stilted breakfast between the three of them where Albus' multiple attempts to start a conversation between Scorpius and Toby fail miserably.

"Alright, 'fess up. What'd you do?" Albus asks him the second Toby leaves the Great Hall to look for Rose.

Scorpius angrily spoons up more Tarantula Treaties into his mouth. "Toby Arlington is a paranoid wanker," is all he offers as an explanation.

"Seriously, Scor. I don't think you've said more than five words to Toby all week," Albus frowns and runs his hand through his permanently messy black hair. "Did you two get into some kind of quarrel, or something?"

"He thinks I'm trying to put a move on Rose," Scorpius sighs and finishes up the last of his cereal.

Albus does a double take. "Bloody hell. He doesn't really think you'd do that, does he? I mean, you two have known each other since second-year. He knows you'd never do something like that."

Albus' unwavering faith in him is encouraging, but suddenly Scorpius isn't so sure what he'd do or wouldn't do anymore.

(Shit, what's going on with him? This is Rose Weasley. She's a friend. Admittedly a very attractive and appealing friend, but...)

(Whoa.)

-.-.-

Finally, for the first time in a month, Rose shows up at the Black Lake one crisp Wednesday morning. She's all curled up by the rock and her head is buried in a thick, leather tome that looks about a hundred years old.

"Morning," Rose greets, and she's all smiley and beaming so Scorpius can't help but feel his mood brighten considerably.

(He wonders if she knows what's going on between him and Toby.)

"Morning, Weasley," he sits down on a tufty patch of grass beside her and relaxes. "It's been a long time since you've been here," he observes, opening one eye.

Rose looks up from her book guiltily. "Um—yeah, I suppose. I'm really sorry about that. I've just been really busy with school work and all."

Scorpius frowns at her peculiar response. Something tells him there's something Rose isn't telling him. He shrugs and lets it slide. "Tell me something," he murmurs.

"What?"

"Anything. Got any stories?"

The corner of Rose's mouth quirks upward and she spends the next thirty minutes ranting on about everything that's going on in her life. Scorpius likes this—he feels like he's catching up on everything he missed for these past few months.

After Rose is done talking, she leans back on the rock and gazes at Scorpius pensively. Suddenly, Rose looks almost embarrassed at something.

He pulls himself up so that he's leaning against the rock and looks at her inquiringly. "What?"

"I have a question to ask," the faint blush on her cheeks becomes more pronounced.

This is going to be interesting. "Ask away."

"It's about Toby..."

Scorpius closes his eyes and mentally groans. "Thanks for the warning," he mumbles.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing," he shakes his head, a little glad she didn't hear him.

"Oh. Um, well, this isn't easy for me to say, so I'd appreciate it deeply if you didn't ridicule me," Rose bites her bottom lip. Scorpius rolls his eyes and nods his head. "I have a question about... boys. And—um—sex. And also how badly they really want it."

He blinks at her, because fucking hell — he does _not_ want to hear about Rose and Toby's steamy snogging sessions or whatever. And what's this about _sex_? He gets a ghastly mental image of Toby forcing himself on a sobbing Rose and his blood just starts boiling.

"Don't tell me Toby's trying to... you know... make you do stuff you don't want to do or whatever—" Scorpius' fists ball up and he swears that he'll beat Toby into a bloody pulp if Rose confirms his theory.

"No!" Rose says quickly, horrified. "No, of course not. We've only been together for a few months, and we're—it's not—it's not like that."

He relaxes. Just a little.

"Right. So why're you...?"

She exhales slowly and lowers herself down from the rock. She sits right beside him and now their arms are gently brushing against each other. "It's like this. Toby and I... we'll be, you know, snogging or whatever..."

Scorpius has never seen Rose this inarticulate. He grins from ear to ear. "And whatever?"

(He's struggling very hard right now not to think too much about Rose-and-Toby doing all that.)

"Scorpius!" she goes horribly red. Scorpius can't help but the think that the way she blushes so easily is strangely tempting. He could get used to making her blush like that.

"Okay, I'm sorry," he says sincerely, and waits for Rose to continue.

She takes in a deep breath and looks down. Her fingers start fiddling with the hem of her robes. "So we'll be, you know, snogging, and it's—it's going really well, but then he'll just stop. He'll pull away, and I just don't know... I mean, I know _why_ Toby does that, but..."

Inside, Scorpius is pretty much laughing his arse off. Toby is such a _girl_.

Outside, he maintains a mask of composure and thoughtfulness. Then he starts sniggering. "Toby would hate you if he knew you were telling me all this," their eyes meet, and he promises her, "I won't say anything to him, I swear."

Rose sighs in relief.

"So... what're you telling me all this for?" Scorpius wants to know one, why she's coming to him, of all people, for relationship advice (she knows as well as everyone that he's not exactly the perfect gentleman when it comes to girls) and two, doesn't she have any other girl friends to help her with this shit?

(Oh. Right. Caitlyn isn't exactly an option, and Rose isn't really close with anyone else.)

"Er—well—sometimes when we're—when we're fooling around and all that... I don't want to stop," she admits, and quickly looks up at him to gauge his response.

Scorpius' mouth goes dry and he's temporarily lost for words. He takes in all this information slowly. Rose Weasley is telling him that she likes snogging and that sometimes she doesn't want to stop.

And there's not a single thing he can do about it.

Bloody hell.

"Well... uh..." he mumbles before clearing his throat. "Again, what do you need my help for?"

"I just thought that you might have some advice for what I can do. You know, for..." she pauses mid-sentence.

"Weasley," he prompts.

"Never mind. This is mortifying. I shouldn't have said anything," she covers her scarlet face with her hands, laughing weakly.

"Rose," he says, and she removes her hands, looking at him with mild surprise.

"I never thought I'd see the day that you would call me by my first name."

He ignores that. "Look, not a whole lot of blokes can handle... that..." (he tries saying this as delicately as he can) "... without, you know, anything happening. There's nothing wrong with Arlington, or anything."

"I know that," Rose smiles slightly. Her blush is fading away. "Glad to know I'm not doing anything wrong."

"Some blokes can snog for hours. Prime example would be me," he states roguishly, and he snorts with laughter when Rose attacks him with her gigantic book.

(He doesn't miss how Rose's eyes flicker to his lips, even if just for a second.)

"So, just give him a little time. Let him work up some... resistance, alright?" he says.

"You're saying I should just keep snogging him until he... manages to control himself?" Rose says uncertainly, cocking an eyebrow. She looks to her lap.

Inwardly, Scorpius cringes. Fuck, he can't believe he's doing this. He's actually encouraging Rose to snog Toby senseless until Toby finally grows some bollocks. "Yeah. Something like that."

She smiles and bites her lip. Again.

"So. Toby and I are going to the Hogsmeade trip this weekend. Want to come with? I mean, I can't remember the last time the three of us properly hung out together." Rose suggests.

Scorpius barely contains his bark of derisive laughter. "No thanks."

"How come? It'll be fun, I think. I've noticed that, well... Toby isn't as close to you as he was last year, and I can't help but think that it's partly my fault. And I—"

"Rose, I said no," he says firmly.

She looks taken aback at his curt reply., but she sets her shoulders. "Why?"

"Because. It's not a good idea."

(It's actually the worst fucking idea of the century.)

"And why not?" she narrows her eyes and Scorpius recognizes this as a sign that Rose is getting worked up.

"Because I don't do the whole third wheel thing," he runs a hand through his blond hair. "Sitting there while you and Toby stick your tongues in each other's mouths is not my idea of fun, thank you very much."

"I don't understand."

"Oh, really?" he asks, turning to her. He gets in her face a little bit, and he sets his jaw. "Rose, come on. You're the smartest witch of the whole fucking school, _you_ figure it out. I don't know if you've noticed but Toby and I don't exactly get along anymore."

"Don't be silly, Scorpius. Toby would love for you to be there. We're all friends," she insists and climbs up to her feet. He laughs humourlessly and stands up too. "Aren't we?"

"Sure."

"So why won't you...?" Rose inquires, looking flabbergasted.

"Just drop it. For Merlin's sake," he says quietly. Somehow, they're both standing mere inches apart.

"I don't want to," she admits, and her expression changes into something softer. "You're one of my best friends, Scorpius. You're very important to me."

(His heart aches at this—he's not so sure why. Maybe it's just heartburn.)

He glances at her lips quickly—he can't help it, they're all red and pouty and they're right there—and he takes a step back.

"Have fun," he says, and he makes his way back to the castle.

-.-.-

The weekend approaches and on Saturday morning, a large percentage of the student body (Scorpius included) mill towards the Great Hall to get clearance from Filch before journeying up to Hogsmeade.

He goes with Albus and Caitlyn and they have a pretty great time visiting Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and Honeydukes. The three of them emerge from both shops with their hands full of sweets, candies and various merchandise. Caitlyn insists they accompany her to Gladrag's Wizardwear for some new robes and Albus and Scorpius go into Spintwitches for some extra Quidditch equipment.

Then, Albus goes off with some Hufflepuff fifth-year he's had his eye on for ages, and Scorpius and Caitlyn are left on their own. Scorpius doesn't really mind—Caitlyn's good company and she's easy to talk to. They get two bottles of Butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks and they walk around Hogsmeade, talking and laughing.

Caitlyn's in the middle of telling him about turning a hedgehog into a pincushion during her Transfiguration lesson yesterday when they pass by Madam Puddifoot's. The entire building is puke pink and there's a gigantic window up front where you can look in and see the whole shop.

"I've always hated that place," he remarks, taking a swig from his half-empty bottle of Butterbeer. "S'fucking ugly and girly."

Caitlyn laughs, highly amused. "Not all girls love it. I have personally detested Madam Puddifoot's ever since Toby took me there in second-year. He actually _likes_ it."

Scorpius is, frankly, repulsed. "Something's wrong with the bloke, I swear."

Caitlyn runs up to the giant window and peers in, giggling. She gestures for him to come over too. "Would you look at that! Bloody _everyone_ is snogging in there—" she stops talking. Scorpius presses his nose up against the glass and squints. His eyes pan around the room and his gaze fixes himself on Rose and Toby, all cuddled up in a secluded corner of the hideous teashop and kissing furiously over their coffee.

Something hot and angry coils inside his stomach and he immediately tenses all over.

Caitlyn steps away from the window, face stony. "Let's go," she says shortly. She walks briskly away and Scorpius is left to stare, confused, at her retreating back.

(It's the first time he realizes that Caitlyn and him share a mutual dislike for Rose-and-Toby. He's just not sure if she hates them for the same reason he does.)

-.-.-

This year's Christmas at The Burrow is particularly cold and frosty. Grandma Molly keeps a constant, magical fire roaring in their brick fireplace and they spend most of their nights huddled around the warm flames, sipping endless cups of steaming hot chocolate.

This year, as some sort of sick joke, Uncle Georgia somehow gets hold of some sprigs of mistletoe that he hangs everywhere in the house. Everyone thinks it's a giant hoot but Scorpius could not be less amused.

(Seriously, Rose and Toby don't need any more incentive for public displays of affection.)

On Christmas Day, the Weasley-Potters throw a huge Christmas party and invite practically everyone that lives in Ottery St. Catchpole. Scorpius isn't really in a Christmas-y mood so he basically just drifts around groups, talking to random strangers he's never met before. He even meets some weird, old bloke with straggly white-blond hair named "Xeno" who's wearing some kind of "Santa Claus" suit.

(Apparently, according to Xeno, it's some magical god that the Muggles worship.)

As the party drags on he gets more and more tired. The fairy lights are too bright, he's eaten too much food, and suddenly all he wants to do is go to bed. When it's barely ten o' clock he retires to his favourite pond near the hill and just lies down. He grass is covered in wet, half-melted slushy snow and the damp seeps through his jeans a little but fuck if he cares. His warm breath mists in the cold air and after several minutes he actually dozes off just like that, freezing his bollocks off.

When he eventually jolts awake, the backyard is silent and everyone seems to have left. He mutters a tired _shit_ and slowly makes his way to The Burrow. Scorpius immediately heads towards the fireplace for a source of warmth, stripping off his soaked jacket in the process.

"Where've you been?" a voice very familiar alarms him, but he relaxes when he sees that it's just Rose, curled up by the fireplace with some of Grandma Molly's leftover mince pies.

"Sleeping," he answers cryptically. He likes the way Rose looks, with her legs tucked underneath her and hair loose.

"Don't tell me you've been sleeping outside!" Rose says disbelievingly. "You must be freezing."

"Pretty much," he strips off his sweater and wet socks to warm his toes by the fire. "Why're you up so late? I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted."

"You didn't like the party?" she inquires. Scorpius sits himself down carefully beside her.

"Wasn't really in the mood," he says.

"Wait, hold on. Scorpius Malfoy? Not in the mood for a party?" she has an expression of mock horror on her face. "What on earth is the world coming to?"

He grins because, hey, he likes it when she gets all sarcastic like this.

They chat for a little while about all sorts of shit, and Scorpius is just enjoying basking in the heat of the fireplace, until Rose reaches up to unravel her striped Gryffindor scarf from around her neck.

He freezes when he sees this distinct, purplish-yellow bruise on the pale, freckled skin of her neck. Without thinking, he leans forward—effectively cutting Rose off in mid-sentence—and brushes a finger against the mark.

"Oho, Wealsey, what do we have here?" he says in a light voice, but inside he's fucking _furious_. He knows he's got absolutely no right to, but he's still pissed.

(He might even be jealous, but _fuck_ , Scorpius Malfoy does not get jealous. He doesn't _do_ jealousy.)

Rose's breath quickens as she stares at his finger on her throat. "Um. Toby—Toby did it," her lips pinch into a thin line and she looks completely mortified. "I forgot that was there."

He's been concentrating on the bruise all this while so his gaze flickers upward. "I guess you really took my advice to heart, didn't you?"

Rose is staring at him. Her mouth is slightly open and the dancing flames of the fire casts her face into a shadow. She leans in a little, seemingly instinctively. Scorpius' heart starts trip-hammering, which is ridiculous because he's been in far more sexually-suggestive situations than this. I mean, they're not even snogging.

(Which is, by the way, something Scorpius wants to do to Rose. Desperately.)

He traces his finger down the column of her neck and watches as she starts breathing rapidly, still staring at him with that wide-eyed gaze.

_Sod it_ , Scorpius thinks, and he covers her mouth with his.

(She tastes fucking amazing. Maybe even better than before. How's that even possible?)

Rose freezes in place at first, but when Scorpius starts gently massaging her bottom lip with his tongue she lets out this wonderfully blissful sigh, wraps her arms around his neck ( _fuck yes_ ) and she kisses him back with just as much as he's giving her. Scorpius' hands inevitably end up tangled in her soft hair and he presses her back against an armchair. The tiny moan she lets out when Scorpius' palm brush her neck nearly makes him go crazy. She does this thing where Rose sucks on his bottom lip and _fuck_ , how'd she get so good at this?

He really doesn't want to think about how Rose got so good at snogging because _he_ should be the only one doing this to her, damn it.

(How on earth did he put off kissing Rose for so bloody long?)

Her hands fist in the front of his shirt and she pulls him even closer so that their bodies are flush against each other. She pulls away slightly to catch her breath. Her hair is mussed up and Merlin, she's beautiful. "What—are—you—doing?" she gasps unsteadily, and Scorpius moves on to her neck, kissing and licking the warm skin with small flickers of his deft tongue.

"Snogging—you—senseless," he replies between kisses, grinning a little. His arms snake around her and Scorpius makes his fingers dance along the waistband of her pyjama pants. Rose's legs tighten around him and he groans softly, because, hell, he doesn't remember ever feeling this turned on. Her head tilts back involuntarily and Scorpius quickly sucks on a particularly sensitive spot on her neck because he needs to mark her in some way, needs to mark her the same way Toby did.

"Scorpius," she sighs, arching back a little, and Scorpius makes a noise from the back of his throat. Her hands, those tiny hands, feverishly make their way into his hair and—

And she jerks his head back rather painfully. "Ow," he exclaims in surprise.

"Stop," Rose says, and Scorpius isn't sure if she's talking to herself or if she's saying it to him. "Just—just stop."

"I don't _want_ to," he says bluntly. Her lips are bruised and all red, she has a dazed expression on her face and yeah, the look in Rose's eyes is plainly telling him that she wants this just as badly as he does.

She untangles himself from him. "This is confusing," she states a matter-of-factly. Scorpius almost laughs out loud. He can only imagine what Rose is going through—he knows for a fact that Rose hates feeling confused. "This is the third time you've kissed me," she adds as an afterthought.

"Yes, it is," he nods, grinning slightly, and leans in for a fourth. Rose stops him with a two fingers pressed up against his lips.

"Toby's my boyfriend," Rose presses her lips together. "Scorpius, what's going _on_?"

Scorpius doesn't answer, because honestly? He has no idea.

She quickly pulls herself together and stands up. Scorpius watches as she straightens her clothes and runs upstairs without another glance back.

-.-.-

Rose spends the next few days plainly trying to avoid him, even though sometimes he catches her staring at Scorpius from across the room or whatever. He tries to tell himself he doesn't care, because all this that Rose is making him feel is something he definitely shouldn't be experiencing.

(Maybe if he ignores Those Feelings for long enough, they'll go away.)

-.-.-

Their Christmas holidays finally come to close and the whole lot of them board the Hogwarts Express back. Rose-and-Toby take a break from their Prefect patrolling duties for a few minutes and the both of them squeeze into the seat opposite of him. Scorpius is lounging languidly against the window and he deliberately fixes Rose with a mostly neutral gaze as she squeezes herself into her seat.

Roxanne Weasley proposes a game of Exploding Snap and everyone's in the middle of playing when he overhears Toby say with a slight frown, "Did I give you that?"

He turns his head and sees Toby pulling down the collar of her robes. There's a brilliantly purple bruise on the side of her neck. Rose immediately tugs it back up with her face burning. Her eyes dart over to Scorpius for the briefest of seconds. Scorpius arches an eyebrow, but Rose looks away.

"You probably—uh—you probably just don't remember," Rose mutters and quickly changes the subject.

-.-.-

Valentine's Day arrives.

Toby—being the disgustingly affectionate twit that he is—sends over a fucking huge heart-shaped wreath of red roses to the Gryffindor table with a Levitation spell during breakfast. The entire Great Hall watches as the stupid flowers fly into Rose Weasley's arms. Even from across the huge hall Scorpius can see that Rose is more embarrassed than happy about receiving the ridiculous wreath. As she should be — it's a ridiculously over-the-top display of affection.

Everyone cheers and makes catcalls. All the girls swoon over Toby and say shit about how romantic and how _in touch with his sensitive side_ he is. This whole sickening display of love completely repulses him. Seriously, it's so soppy and sugary sweet he wants to vomit.

(There might be another reason why he hated it, but he's not going to look too much into that, because this little thing he currently has for Rose is temporary, anyway.)

-.-.-

He finds Rose there next Thursday morning, sitting by her usual spot by the lake. She doesn't have a book of any sort with her. She jumps up when she spots him running towards her and Scorpius slows down, greeting Rose with a little smile. "Hello, Weasley—"

"I told Toby about the kiss," she blurts, blinking rapidly.

Scorpius takes a moment to contemplate this. "And what did he say?" he asks casually. He hates how there's two feet of space between them and she's acting all distant and strange all of a sudden.

"I told him yesterday. He was... he wasn't happy," she admits, and looks down at her sneakers.

"What made you tell him?" he crosses his arms and cocks his head.

"You have no idea how guilty you made me feel!" she lashes out, and his head jerks in surprise. "I feel like the worst girlfriend ever. I—we were talking last night and he was asking me about _this_ —" she tugs down her collar and jabs at the large bruise he gave her angrily. "—again so I just had to tell him."

"You're not very good at this, are you?" Scorpius says in a mockingly disappointed tone. "When you cheat, you're not supposed to tell the person you're cheating on."

Yeah, he knows he's acting like a total wanker but he's just so fucking _angry_. Angry at Toby, angry at Rose, but mostly angry at himself.

"You—" she's lost for words. Her face is flushed with fury. "Toby and I argued for _hours_ last night. About you. About the way—the way you kissed me—"

"Did you tell him you kissed me back?"

Rose's mouth drops open. "That is _not_ the point. The point is, you kissed me when you knew I was with Toby—"

"Oh, don't pretend like you didn't want it too." He scoffs and looks at Rose straight in the eye because, fuck, he _knows_ she wanted it.

Rose clamps her lips together and Scorpius realizes that she's mentally counting down from ten to calm herself down. "You're making things really complicated," she states simply.

"Do you remember that Toby kissed _you_ when he was still with Caitlyn?" he challenges. He has his face composed into a mask of icy apathy, just to piss Rose off even further.

Her face drains of colour. His anger dims and he mutters a silent _shit_ to himself because now Rose just looks like she's about to cry. He reaches out to pull her into a hug. He wraps his arms around her and tucks her head under his chin. "Bloody hell, I'm sorry. Fuck, I really am. I was a complete tosser. Don't know what came over me," He mumbles into her hair.

"I'm sorry, too," she says into his shirt.

"You don't have anything to apologize for," he feels like the biggest arsehole in the entire world.

"No, it's just—I'm sorry because—well, Toby told me to stay away from you."

Scorpius blinks and pulls away a little. "Excuse me?"

"He doesn't want me to spend time with you anymore," she clarifies. She detaches herself from him and looks at him with pleading eyes. "You have to understand, Scorpius."

"So... Toby-fucking-Arlington wants you to stay away from me?"

"He told me that I'd done the exact thing he was worried about," she starts pacing around a little. "He—he told me that he knew something like this would happen sooner or later," she explains shakily.

(This doesn't make sense.)

"Wait. Toby told you to stay away from me... and you're listening to him?" he says disbelievingly. "Rose, I know you. You don't let anyone—least of all a bloke—walk all over you."

"This is different, okay?" she closes both of her eyes and exhales deeply.

What _is_ it about bloody Toby that has Rose so smitten? He's never known her to be this meek before. She's the most opinionated person he's ever met. Rose should be the one ordering Toby around, not the other way around.

"So you made a deal with the devil," he says bitterly.

Her eyes snap open. "Toby is _not_ the devil," she rebukes hotly. "In fact, I think this arrangement would be better, too. At least until things... cool off a little."

He nods and shrugs. "Fuck Toby," he says decisively. "Fuck all this shit. Rose, we're friends. I'm sorry I kissed you, I really am. I shouldn't have done that. It was out of line."

"I know you're sorry, and I'm sorry too. It's just that... when you kissed me... I felt something." She says haltingly. Scorpius' heart judders to a stop.

"Right," he manages, and it takes all of his strength not to pull her in and kiss her hard on her mouth, right there and then. Merlin, Rose just told him that she likes it when he kisses her.

"I don't exactly know why, but yes, I felt something," Rose admits. "And—I—don't—"

Scorpius interrupts gently. "I get it. I understand."

Rose looks at him for a long, silent moment. Then she comes out with a ridiculous statement: "You have feelings for me." She says this like it's a fact, like something she's known all along to be true.

Scorpius pauses for a moment before laughing. He injects his laughter with as much scorn and ridicule as possible. He's being an arsehole _again_ , he knows, but somehow he just can't stop himself. It's so fucking toxic and he hates it. "Don't flatter yourself, Weasley," he says, and turns around to walk away.

-.-.-

The second he walks into Divination with the Ravenclaws, Toby comes out of fucking nowhere and punches him in the face. It hurts like hell (the bloke's a fucking _Beater_ ) and blood spurts out of his nose. There's several screams of shock from their fellow classmates and suddenly everyone crowds around Toby and him. Professor Shortgreen is appalled. Scorpius presses his palm to his broken nose in a futile attempt to stem the flow.

"Toby!" Albus rushes over and gawps. "What the hell did you do that for?"

Toby is breathing heavily and the look on his face plainly says _I can't believe I just did that, holy shit._ But Scorpius can see just how angry Toby really is.

_How did things get so fucked up so fast_? a distant part of his mind wonders.

"Stay the fuck away from Rose," he grinds out.

Scorpius puts on a Malfoy sneer. "I don't suppose Rose told you that she kissed me back too."

Probably not the smartest thing to say, but Scorpius finds that he really doesn't give a fuck anymore.

Toby turns puce. "You shut up about her!" he roars and Scorpius whips out his wand, but before he can mutter a quick Blasting Curse, Professor Shortgreen and her huge girth worms her way through the throng of gawking students and gives them both detention ("Muggle fighting in classrooms! Really, whatever will you wicked schoolboys think of next?").

(He gets his nose fixed in the Hospital Wing.)

-.-.-

"Toby just punched you today in Divination," Scorpius looks up to see Albus sliding into his usual seat in Transfiguration. "I think you owe me an explanation, mate."

He thinks Albus is probably right. So, he tells Albus everything.

(Everything except the part where he's suddenly developed this... thing for Rose.)

When he's done, Albus is staring at him in incredulity. "Um, how the _fuck_ did I not know about this earlier?" he demands. "Way to leave me in the dark."

Scorpius sighs and leans back in his chair. "Sorry. And I'm sorry about... what I did to Rose."

"Yeah, that wasn't cool. I mean, we're cousins and all, so... it's kinda weird that you kissed her."

"I know. It won't happen again, swear."

"So... what happens now?" Albus asks uncertainly.

(To tell the truth, he has no idea himself.)

-.-.-

Scorpius would like to repeat that he doesn't do jealousy.

Seriously. Usually _he's_ the one causing the jealousy. But apparently, he does jealousy now. Over Rose-fucking-Weasley.

This is a _problem_.

So he tries to solve it. He turns on his "magical powers of attraction"—Caitlyn's words, not his—and makes it his mission to shag as many girls as possible. Mostly because he fucking can, but also because the way Rose dominates his thoughts sometimes legitimately scares him. Like, seriously.

He supposes it was already this way for a while, but ever since that amazing kiss, it's as though everything is twice as bad now. Seeing Rose-and-Toby all pressed up against each other in hallways and classrooms with their hands entwined makes his fists clench and teeth grind.

It is completely absurd. And he pretty much hates Rose for it.

Actually, that's a lie. It's messed up, but he can't hate Rose, no matter how hard he tries (but he's sure this'll eventually pass).

Toby, however, is a different matter.

So, he avoids Rose. It's easy—it's already April and there's only about one more month left of his sixth year before summer comes. All he has to do is stop jogging at the Black Lake (he switches his route to around the Quidditch Pitch) and stop talking to her. He evades her eyes when he passes her in the hallways. He uses girls as distractions and it works perfectly. Almost.

(It's what she wants, anyway, so yeah, he's giving her exactly what she wanted. For him to stay the fuck away.)

-.-.-

He spends his seventeenth birthday alone, wandering the hallways of a third-floor corridor with a half-empty bottle of extra-strong Firewhiskey he pinched from the house elves. He has no idea where he's going or why he's doing this since it's more than likely that he'll be caught by some patrolling Prefect anyway but he likes the empty, silent atmosphere of Hogwarts at night. It's strangely calming and the liquor makes his mind go blissfully blank (which is what he seriously needs right now).

He rounds a corner and is in the middle of chugging another mouthful of the burning liquid down when he bumps into someone.

"Scorpius?" a terribly familiar voice asks.

He focuses his eyes on Rose and grins. "That's me," he slurs his words slightly.

She looks at the square bottle in his hands. "You're drunk," she tells him needlessly.

"It's my birthday," he explains. Fuck, he's missed her. Like, seriously missed her. He can't even comprehend why. Other girls he can get over in mere hours but this girl... he shakes his head. It didn't make sense. It didn't make any fucking _sense_.

"Happy birthday, I guess," she smiles, even though Scorpius can tell she doesn't want to. He's surprised when she doesn't lay onto him about underage drinking and all that shit.

"Happy birthday to me," he laughs sourly and studies Rose. He studies the gentle curve of her neck, the smattering of freckles on her nose, her lips and unconsciously commits them all to memory. This is the first time in a month that he's been alone with her.

"You really should get back to bed," she says quietly.

"I should, shouldn't I?" he doesn't budge an inch. He just keeps on looking at her. Then, without thinking, he leans forward to give her a chaste peck on her lips. His lips barely brush against hers but Rose blushes to the tips of her roots. She doesn't say anything, doesn't admonish him or reprimand him or tell him that she has a boyfriend.

(He's not sure if that's a good thing, or not.)

"I should be going," he says, before he leans in to do more. He turns around and fumbles away, leaving Rose in his wake.

-.-.-

"There's a seventh-year graduation party up in the Gryffindor common room tonight," Caitlyn tells him the day before, and Scorpius grins before telling him that _he's so fucking there_. It's the last day of the entire school year and frankly, he's sick of school. Exams are over and his brain is still sore at the amount of knowledge he's had to cram into his head with his last-minute revision.

The party is going on in full swing when he arrives at ten. The music is thumping, everyone is swaying to the beat, and someone has thoughtfully charmed kegs of strong mead to float about above their heads for anyone to drink from.

He gets into the common room with the help of Caitlyn and her password for the Fat Lady and that's when he sees her. She's wearing these tight, sexy jeans and Toby's arm is around her waist and the whole fucking image is _wrong_. He quickly makes use of the charmed kegs and within half an hour he's already riding a pleasant buzz. Several of his mates are calling his name and they clap, so he drinks some more.

(He ignores the fact that the only person in the room who doesn't seem impressed is the one girl in the whole world he'd probably do anything for. Another pull off the bottle, and she starts to blur a little.)

He's standing by one of the armchairs, in full view of Rose and Toby, when the most attractive girl in the room comes up to him and starts flirting. He drapes his arm around her shoulder, because she'll do. After a while, he's got no clue what she's saying (does she really think he cares?) and he notices Rose looking, so he speaks into the girl's ear and asks her if she wants to go somewhere quiet.

He finds himself in an empty bedroom with this gorgeous girl topless and sitting on his lap, but he feels _nothing_. Sure, his body is reacting, but she's too skinny, and her voice is too soft, and her skin is too tanned. He stands up, setting her down on the bed in one swift motion, and she smiles at him before she realizes what's going on.

He grabs his shirt and pulls it over his head and leaves the room, ignoring the girl's confused questions. He's being such an arsehole, but he's way too drunk to care about that now.

He leaves the stupid party at a ridiculously early hour (he seems to be doing that more and more often lately) and goes to bed at eleven-thirty.

(He fucking hates how pathetically miserable he feels.)

-.-.-

The school year comes to a close next morning. Scorpius and Albus both pack their trunks companionably, with Albus telling him some story about what happened the night before. Toby has mysteriously disappeared—Scorpius has a strong suspicion that Toby's sleeping somewhere in the Gryffindor dorm on a certain redhead's bed, but he'd rather not dwell on that right now. By nine o' clock, the train pulls out of Hogwarts' station and summer officially begins.

The train ride is mostly uneventful, and when they eventually reach King's Cross, Scorpius is—as always—exhausted from the long train ride. Grandma Molly, Mr Potter and Aunt Hermione meet them at the platform with huge smiles and hugs for their children. Scorpius stands at the edge of the group, and stays back when all of them make their way out of the packed train station.

Albus turns around and frowns when he realizes that Scorpius isn't following them. "You okay, mate?"

"Yeah," he's unsure how to say this. "I'll be spending summer at the Malfoy Manor this year." He'd made the decision a month ago.

Albus does a double take. "But you haven't spent summer there in years," he says doubtfully. "You always come to The Burrow."

"Not this year," he shakes his head a little sheepishly.

"But... why?"

_Good question_ , Scorpius thinks. Maybe it's because his family is in shambles and he has to do something about it. Maybe it's because he misses his mum. Maybe it's because if he has to spend another summer seeing how deliriously happy Rose is around Toby, he'll fucking kick himself in the bollocks. Take your pick. "I've got some stuff I need to take care of," he finally says.

"Oh. Right," he gives Scorpius a puzzled look. "Yeah, well... you're welcome to come over anytime you want, though." He gives Scorpius a quick pat on the back. "See you later! Send an owl whenever you can!" he calls over his shoulder as he hurries to catch up with the rest of his family.

Scorpius waits until they're all gone before stepping out of King's Cross by himself. He hails a Muggle taxi, loads his trunk into the boot and goes straight home.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you for reading!**


	4. Seventh Year, Part I

  


* * *

**Seventh Year, Part I**

* * *

Scorpius regrets his decision to return to Malfoy Manor the second he arrives.

The façade of the manor is just as foreboding as he remembers—all cold brick and black iron. Neatly trimmed hedges about seven feel tall surround the entire perimeter of the austere building. Through the looming gate, he can see the hideous statue of his great-grandfather Abraxas Malfoy that he's always hated. Scorpius stands there in the bitter chill, staring at the cold sneer on Abraxas Malfoy's marble face. It's a far cry from the warm, welcoming homeliness of The Burrow that he's already grown used to. For a second he contemplates Apparating back to avoid facing his thoroughly fucked up family, but a sickening image of Rose-and-Toby comes to mind and his resolve strengthens considerably.

(He thinks he needs to stay away from Rose for a while. It's definitely for the best.)

It's a long, _long_ walk up the paved brick path to the front door, and when he finally reaches it (after like a fucking century, or something) he takes a long moment to stare at the Malfoy crest. It depicts a curlicue M with several silver snakes entwined around it. Beneath the crest is the Latin phrase " _Sanctimonia Vincet Semper_ ". Purity always conquers. Scorpius shakes his head. He lifts his hand up to knock but before his fingers even make contact with the polished brass handle, the heavy door swings open.

"Master Scorpius!" someone squeaks from below.

Scorpius can't help but grin. "Peony!"

The tiny house elf gives him a bow so low her pointy nose scrapes the spotless floor. "Master Scorpius, it's good to have you back, sir!"

"Yeah, I haven't been here in a while…" he pats Peony affectionately on her tiny back, levitates his trunk in, and steps through the threshold into the lavishly, ridiculously decorated hall. There are silver chandeliers and enormous fireplaces everywhere. The ceiling above is magnificently vaulted and the floor is cold, hard marble. He shakes his coat off and Peony eagerly rushes over to retrieve it.

"Master Scorpius will find his room ready, sir, everything is as how you left it and nothing is touched, and oh Peony is so very glad Master Scorpius is back!" Peony's tennis ball eyes abruptly tear up. "Things have not been good here, sir, no, not good at all…"

Scorpius's jaw tightens. "You mean between my parents?"

Peony clutches the brightly colored beanie that adorns her head with a worried expression on her face and nods vigorously.

He sighs. "Is my father here?"

"Upstairs, sir."

-.-.-

He finds his father slumped in a leather armchair with a bottle dangling precariously from his fingers. All the curtains are drawn and the only source of light in the room comes from a dying fireplace. Scorpius wastes no time in shaking his father forcefully awake.

(It suddenly dawns on him that he hasn't seen his father in over a year. If that isn't fucked up, he doesn't know what is.)

His father's bloodshot eyes open blearily and he lets out several coughs. He runs his shaking fingers through his messy hair and scratches the stubble on his unshaven jaw. Quite frankly, it's the worst Scorpius has ever seen him. He almost doesn't recognize him – his father usually doesn't have a hair out of place. The sudden change is jarring.

"You look like shit," Scorpius tells him.

It takes a moment for his father to properly focus on him. "Scorpius?" he says hoarsely, pulling himself upright in his armchair. It's almost pathetic, the state he's in.

"Yeah, it's me," Scorpius replies brusquely. He wants to get this over with as quick as possible, though he's not sure how much information his father can process when he's pretty much catatonic. He leans in closer but immediately steps back when the overwhelming reek of alcohol makes his eyes water. "Merlin, how much did you drink?"

His father doesn't bother to answer. "I thought you were at the Weasleys?"

He says "Weasleys" like it's some kind of genital disease.

Scorpius resists the strong urge to roll his eyes. "I changed my mind," is what he offers succinctly as an explanation. "I—well, you and I need to talk."

His father groans. "Not more talking. I've had enough of talking."

His pleas go unnoticed by Scorpius. "It's about mum."

His father is silent and he lifts the bottle up for more alcohol but Scorpius quickly snatches it out of his grasp. "I'm being dead serious about this!" Scorpius's patience is running thin.

They glare at each other for several seconds before his father speaks up. "You're taller."

"Yeah, well," Scorpius says after an uncomfortable pause. "I grew up. I suppose."

(He notices with a pang of regret that his father's white-blond hair is already streaked with strands of gray. When the hell did _that_ happen?)

His father rubs his face with a tired hand. "So what exactly do you want to talk about? I haven't got all day," he says with a characteristic snippiness.

Scorpius sits down on an armchair opposite of his father. For a moment his words get stuck in his throat and all he can do is look down at his feet. "Um. Is—is everything alright with you and mum?" he manages weakly.

"No," his father replies shortly. He doesn't bother to elaborate.

"Well—why?"

"It's nothing."

Scorpius's temper flares. "Stop giving me vague answers! Look, as the _only_ child of this family, I should have the right to at least know what the bloody hell is going on, don't you think?"

His father sighs. "We've just disagreed on a few things, that's all. Look, by next Christmas everything will be fine."

"How are things going to be fine if mum's at The Burrow and you're just sitting here drinking yourself into a coma?" Scorpius demands and leans forward in his chair. "Why aren't you—I dunno—at least trying to make things up with mum?"

His father places his face in both his hands and grunts. Suddenly it's as though he completely deflates. All the fight goes out of him and he slumps back in the armchair. "It's those damn Potters and Weasleys."

This comes as no surprise to Scorpius. "I know about—you know—how the Malfoys are supposed to completely detest Weasleys and Potters, but don't you ever get—get exhausted of hating them? I mean, it's not like they've ever wronged you, or anything. In fact they're actually nice people, as hard as that is to believe."

His father says nothing in reply.

"I think—speaking as a completely objective third party observer, of course—that the best option for you right now would be to… well, go over to the Burrow and maybe… have a little chat with them. It's been long overdue, actually."

"Merlin."

"Come on!"

"It's completely unnecessary."

"You still love mum, no?" Scorpius asks a bit desperately. His question lingers in the air between them for the longest second, and for a moment Scorpius is terrified of hearing the answer.

(He feels like a ten year old again.)

"Yes, I suppose I do," the side of his father's mouth quirks up in a wry, tired smile.

Relief floods him in waves. "Then this is something that you've got to do sooner or later. This whole grudge thing between you and the Potters and the Weasleys is completely stupid, you should know that."

Silence.

"If this is a matter of pride—"

"Just—just let me think about it," his father mutters. Scorpius's heart jumps into his throat. "Now, please for the love of all that is magical, just let me be."

(He tries not to get his hopes up, but Scorpius thinks he might have actually made some progress here.)

-.-.-

Scorpius can't be bothered to unpack, so when night comes all he does is grab the first shirt he sees from his Hogwarts trunk and turns the lights out.

(He's actually kind of missed his room, to be honest.)

-.-.-

"Well, are we going or not?"

Scorpius is jolted awake by the sensation of someone jabbing him repeatedly (and also rather painfully, in fact) with a pointy finger. "Wha—?"

He hears his curtains being flung open and agonizingly bright light streams into his room. Scorpius buries his face in his pillow and moans. "It's—what—what's going on?"

"Really, Scorpius, it's already eight in the morning."

Scorpius eyes flicker open and focuses on the blurry shape of his father. "Where the hell are we heading off to?"

His father sighs impatiently. "We're visiting The Burrow," he replies, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. The older Malfoy bears no signs of his drinking binge yesterday night. He doesn't even look the slightest bit hung over—his father just looks as aristocratic and proud as ever. Scorpius is actually impressed.

He struggles up in his bed. "N—now?"

"No, how about next year? _Yes_ , now," he sighs in an irritated manner. He says it like it was _his_ idea to visit The Burrow in the first place. A shirt is tossed in his direction and Scorpius reflexively snatches it out of mid-air. "Put it on and we'll be on our way."

He sluggishly tugs it over his head and he hears his father say something unintelligible.

"What?"

His father sighs. "I said, thank you."

"For what?"

"For the wake up call. I... appreciate it."

He pauses for a bit, not really knowing how to react. He can't remember the last time his father said thank you to him. It's weird how awkward he feels around his father — it's definitely not your typical father-son relationship, and Scorpius knows that his father will never be able to replicate the warmth of the Weasleys and Potters. But maybe — maybe this was a step in the right direction.

"No worries," he eventually says, knowing how lame it sounds. "You're welcome, dad."

-.-.-

They Apparate onto Ottery St. Catchpole at precisely 8.27 in the morning. Scorpius is still feeling slightly dazed about this whole thing. Just seeing his father in his fancy robes standing in front of The Burrow is a bizarre experience in itself. He tries, for a moment, to imagine his father having a conversation with Uncle Ron and nope, he just can't. It just isn't possible in this particular realm.

"Well, hurry up!" his father has already started a brisk walk up the tiny hill that you have to trudge up to get to The Burrow. His posture is confident and determined, but Scorpius can feel nervousness positively rolling off him in waves. Scorpius shakes his head, half-exasperated, half-amused, and follows in his father's wake.

Even from afar, Scorpius can see that The Burrow is already bustling with activity. Smoke is rising up in large billows from a brick chimney and there's several confused gnomes wandering the yard. Someone is feeding the chickens outside and as Scorpius and his father approach, he realizes that it's Albus.

"Oy! Albus!" Scorpius calls out and waves energetically.

Albus' head snaps up. He lets out a whoop and tosses his bag of chicken feed on the ground as he runs over.

"Glad you decided to come back , mate! Who—oh," Albus's eyes widen and he takes a step back as he notices his father's presence. Suddenly Albus looks pretty much terrified. Scorpius, however, is finding this massively entertaining. "Um—hello, sir. You must be Scorpius's father."

His father nods wordlessly and gives Albus the signature Malfoy once over. "You're Albus Potter?"

"Yes, sir," At a loss for what else to do, Albus sticks out a hand for a handshake. His dad accepts and they both pump their hands up and down jerkily. It's probably the most awkward handshake Scorpius has ever witnessed.

After shaking Albus's quivering hand, he clears his throat uncomfortably and continues his journey towards The Burrow.

"Your dad's here," Albus says in a shout-whisper, his eyes still as large as saucers. "Your. Dad. Is. Here. This isn't—this isn't right at all. What's he doing here?"

"Well, I made him come here to sort some stuff out. And get it together, mate, you look like you're about to have a heart attack," Scorpius raises an eyebrow and grins.

"You can't exactly blame me. I mean, it's your dad!" Albus defends himself. "He's all… intimidating and stuff."

Just as his father reaches the wooden door of The Burrow, he stops completely. Scorpius catches up with his father, sneaks a glance in his direction and is mildly tickled by the fact that Draco Lucius Malfoy looks like he's about to shit his pants.

"You alright, dad?" he can barely stop himself from snickering.

His father scowls in response and hits him on the back of his head with his dragon-hide gloved hand.

(Ow.)

"Well, I suppose it's now or nothing," his father says, taking in a deep breath, and pushes the door open.

The first thing Scorpius sees when he steps in is the entire Potter-Weasley clan having breakfast in the kitchen. Almost everyone with the last name of Weasley or Potter is present—from the ancient Aunt Muriel Weasley (seriously, what is keeping this woman together? She's like fucking immortal, or something) to little Lily Potter. There's barely enough space in the kitchen to contain all of them, so people are sitting on table tops, on couches, even on the floor.

He thinks this might be the single largest gathering of red-heads, _ever_.

"Morning, everybody," he announces. "This is my father," He gestures behind him at a frozen Draco Malfoy.

Everybody's head swivels around. Like, fucking _everybody_. It's almost comical. Fred Weasley, who's in the process of levitating a stack of pancakes onto his plate, promptly drops them on Uncle Percy's head. Uncle Ron starts choking violently on his coffee. Grandma Molly's fork clatters onto the table. The cacophony of voices and chatter in the room dies down.

(Is it wrong that he finds this hilarious?)

(Also, this is suspiciously similar to Scorpius' own first meeting with the Weasley-Potters.)

He's never seen his father look so uncomfortable. "Morning," he says at last, and bobs his head. There are a few scattered replies of "morning" but for the most part everyone is still trying to grasp the fact that Draco Malfoy is currently standing in the Weasley's kitchen.

"Draco?" his mother's voice pipes up from somewhere at the end of the room. His mother's lone blond head breaks away from the sea of red. "What're you doing here?"

His father relaxes slightly. "Astoria! I…" his voice peters off when he's conscious of the fact that everyone is listening raptly. "I came to apologize."

His mother's eyes widen and they abruptly fill with tears.

"I've been such a fool," his father says quietly.

His mother throws himself into his arms and the entire room bursts into applause and hoots of delight. Out of the corner of his eye, Scorpius sees Rose clapping with a huge smile on her face. He averts his eyes quickly.

"That's sweet," Albus comments, and Scorpius agrees silently. His father owes him _so_ much.

(Also, the lump in his throat means nothing.)

-.-.-

All three of the Malfoys are invited over for dinner that night. He really doesn't want to admit it, but seeing his parents happy again makes Scorpius feel the happiest he's been in a long time.

He tries to forget the fact that Rose is _there_ all night. But, you know, according to Toby she's supposed to fucking stay away from him. So he really shouldn't be this disappointed that Rose doesn't say a single word to him for the entire duration of the dinner. Because he really shouldn't be giving two fucks about this, seeing as Rose all but told him to piss off.

He's doesn't mind. He really doesn't. He's okay with it.

(Oh, Scorpius, the lies you tell yourself.)

-.-.-

Scorpius spends the better part of his summer vacation in the Malfoy Manor by choice. He just thinks that after years of acting like strangers with his parents, it's about time he started growing up and getting it together.

(Look, he's trying, alright?)

Of course, he kind of misses The Burrow. To be more precise, he misses the chaos, the sheer unruliness and rowdy atmosphere of that ancient crooked house. Malfoy Manor couldn't be more different—it's more reserved, quiet, muted.

He considers both places home.

-.-.-

It's three days till the end of summer vacation and Scorpius is just about to settle himself into bed when an unfamiliar tawny owl suddenly taps its beak on the glass pane of his window.

Curious, Scorpius unfurls the piece of parchment neatly attached to the owl's leg and instantly recognizes Rose's swooped, curly penmanship.

_I miss you._

Scorpius clenches his teeth because this is just unfair. He's trying so hard to forget about everything and anything to do with her it's practically giving him a headache. Then she goes and does something like this and Scorpius is back to square one. Again.

Then he looks at the very bottom of the parchment and sees: _P.S. I made Head Girl_ and he just has to laugh because he thinks everyone probably predicted that would happen.

He spends an embarrassing amount of time staring at those three words. It pains him to acknowledge this, but the letter fills him with a weird sense of loss. Honestly? He misses Rose too.

(Shut up.)

So he decides the smartest thing to do would be to ignore the letter. Pretend he's never seen it before and forget its entire existence. He crumples the parchment up and leaves it on his bed.

Twenty three minutes later, he smoothens the creased paper out and carefully puts it at the bottom of his Hogwarts trunk.

-.-.-

Predictably, Scorpius wakes up twenty minutes to eleven on the first of September. He performs his usual morning ablutions at the speed of light, and Apparates onto King's Cross station after saying a hasty goodbye to his mother with a piece of half-eaten buttered toast clamped between his teeth.

He's makes it onto the train with all but five minutes to spare and actually manages to find an empty compartment. When the train starts whistling, he sees a horde of red-heads emerge out of the brick wall gateway and practically stampede their way over to the train in an effort to get on the Hogwarts Express on time. Scorpius is still laughing when the entire Weasley-Potter pack enter his compartment, wheezing and panting, because the whole thing is just fucking hilarious.

It's bloody awesome to see them all again.

(He studiously tries not to look at Rose.)

A traditional game of Exploding Snap starts, and just as Scorpius is dealt his first hand Toby enters the compartment.

"Hello everyone. Is Rose here?" Toby greets as he pops his ugly mug through the compartment door. Scorpius suddenly feels the unexplained urge to put his fist through his face. Don't ask him why.

"Toby!" Rose bounces up and hugs him.

"Aw, aren't they just so cute?" Hugo Weasley coos, and the whole compartment starts to hoot with laughter.

(Guess who's the only one not laughing.)

"Oh, shut it," Toby grins. "C'mon Rose, we've got Head Girl and Head Boy duties."

As soon as the two of them leave, Scorpius turns to Albus, who's ripping into a packet of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. "Toby got Head Boy?" he asks disbelievingly.

"Yeah," Albus chews enthusiastically. "He didn't tell you? Oh—right—" Albus suddenly looks dismayed. "I forgot about you and Toby hating each other's guts."

Scorpius trains his eyes on his hand of cards and slams down a card with a tad more force than necessary.

-.-.-

His first week of his seventh year is basically shit.

Pretty much every single professor starts off their lesson with a lecture about their NEWTs that goes on for _ever_. Yeah, he appreciates how concerned they are about their education and all, but really, when you've heard one NEWT lecture, you've heard them all.

Then, after said lecture finally ends, the professors promptly pile homework on them like there's no tomorrow. By the first day, Scorpius is already backed up with mountains of essays, assignments and projects. Professor McGonagall goes extra batshit crazy and gives them a bloody three foot essay on the Five Principle Exceptions that they're supposed to hand in in two days. _Three. Feet._

Scorpius barely sleeps at all. Most of his time is spent hunched over a writing desk, furiously scribbling about cross-species switches or flipping through some musty tome about the seven uses of dragon blood. By the time he gets to the weekend, he's fucking exhausted.

Conclusion: his seventh year gets off to a terrible start.

(It has nothing to do with that fact that he hardly gets to see a certain member of the Weasley family anymore.)

-.-.-

The only thing that gets him through the torture is the promise of Quidditch practice at the end of the week.

It's been a while since he's ridden his broomstick, so as he walks onto the pitch at the crack of dawn, the familiar adrenaline rush he always associates with flying charges through him and lifts his spirits. Breathing in the crisp early morning air almost makes him forget about the gigantic Potions essay due on Monday that he has yet to start. _Almost._

The rest of the team slowly assembles. Albus, who's not exactly a morning person, is barely even conscious as he hobbles over to Scorpius by using his Speedflight 3000 as a crutch.

"Five thirty in the morning is way too fucking early," he mumbles.

Scorpius is about to formulate a reply when the very last person he wants to see comes into view.

(He almost forgot Toby was in the team, too.)

"Alright, team! Up and early!" Toby says loudly, and claps several drowsy Slytherins on the back. "Good thing I managed to book the pitch before those Gryffindor's got dibs, eh? Right, let's start off with a few practice laps around the pitch!"

Scorpius' good mood sours instantly. Funny how it had a tendency to do that around Toby Arlington. "Why the bloody hell is he telling us what to do? Acting like he's the captain, or something—"

A horrible thought suddenly occurs to him.

He shakes Albus awake vigorously. "Albus! Don't tell me—Toby Quidditch captain this year?"

Albus blinks his bleary eyes. "Yeah, he is…" he trails off. "You didn't know?"

Why is Scorpius even surprised?

-.-.-

Scorpius gets reprimanded for a total of twenty-six times during the three hour practice session.

Toby criticizes everything about him—his flying technique, his speed, his snitch-hunting methods. He even tells Scorpius that his Quidditch uniform is too dirty. Every time Scorpius makes the smallest mistake, Toby is instantly right there beside him, correcting him on the way he's positioning his fingers on the broom, or whatever. You'd think that by being on the Quidditch team since he was a second year, Scorpius would know how to play. But no, according to Toby, he's been doing virtually everything wrong all this time.

(It doesn't take long for Scorpius to figure out that Toby is out to get him.)

What's worse is that he doesn't even yell or use obscenities. He's as genial and cordial as ever. It's either, "Malfoy, remember to keep your eyes on the Snitch! Don't lose focus!" or "I see you're utilizing the Hawkthorne formation—why not try the Fleming's? It's much more effective." His friendly tone just aggravates Scorpius all the more. He _knows_ Toby's completely doing this on purpose. There's this patronizing glint in his eye that only Scorpius seems to notice.

Predictably, no one even twigs that anything is going on. Of course, everyone thinks that Toby just wants Scorpius to get better so that the team can win. The perfect team captain. No one would ever doubt Toby. He's a fucking angel, for Merlin's sake.

But he keeps his mouth shut and nods whenever Toby opens his gob, although the urge throw a good Toenail-Growing hex at him is almost overwhelming. But, you know, he'll control himself for the sake of the team. If Toby wants to continue hounding him, he's completely welcome to. Scorpius certainly isn't going to crack anytime soon. He's forced to accept that—regardless of the fact that Scorpius fucking hates Toby—he has to respect his authority as captain.

(Though whoever made Toby Quidditch captain needs a serious mental checkup. Look, he's just saying.)

Despite all that, as the practice progresses, Toby's face begins to morph into a very appealing punching bag. By the time the two hours are over, Scorpius is practically seething. He stomps over to the showers to wash the stink of sweat off him and spends the rest of the day feeling irrationally pissed off at everything.

This year just keeps getting worse and worse.

-.-.-

It takes a while for the relentless onslaught of school work to ease up. For the first time in weeks, Scorpius is finally able to spare enough time and energy in the morning to do his regular laps around the Black Lake.

He doesn't know what he's hoping for, but after running past a particular rock by the lake about twenty times, he feels peculiarly crushed when Rose doesn't show up with her usual book in hand.

(Really, what else was he expecting?)

-.-.-

He's in the Great Hall slurping up a huge bowl of soggy Tarantula Treaties when Albus bounds over and says gleefully, "Scor. Party in the Ravenclaw common room tonight."

It's the first party of the year and though the appeal of parties has sort of worn off for Scorpius, he's looking forward to it. It's a welcome distraction from the constant presence of parchment and quills, and Merlin knows he needs a distraction right now.

By midnight, the party is in full swing when Scorpius and Albus show up. He already has a few drinks in his system and he's laughing raucously at something stupid when Scorpius abruptly notices Rose-and-Toby in the corner, both of them curled up on an armchair in a shadowy corner with their arms wrapped around each other.

He instantly stiffens and his fist tightens around his plastic cup of mild Firewhiskey. The cup crumples and some liquid spills over.

(Needless to say, his rate of alcohol consumption increases dramatically after that.)

He tries really hard to distract himself again, he really does, but somehow the image of Rose-and-Toby snogging is branded onto the back of his eyelids. The more he drinks, the more the sickening feeling in his gut grows. Under normal circumstances, Scorpius would select some willing girl to take back to his dorm, but no one seems to interest him in the least.

(Except one girl. But let's not talk about her.)

So he drinks more to numb everything. It's a vicious cycle but it seems to be the only thing that can keep unwanted thoughts at bay. He came to the party to have fun, damn it. So, he's going to have fun no matter what it takes. Fuck everything else.

However, one more drink later, he's forced to face the fact that the party is as far from fun as anything can get. Seriously, now he can't even get through a party without feeling miserable. All because he saw Rose-and-Toby together. He's _weak_. It's fucking pathetic.

Scorpius quietly slips away from the crowd and breathes a sigh of relief when he steps out onto the darkened corridors. He's barely taken five steps when someone calls out from behind him.

"Scor! Hold on—wait—"

He turns around and is utterly shocked to see a thoroughly inebriated Caitlyn. It's the first time he's ever seen her completely drunk. Her blonde hair is messy and somehow she's only wearing one shoe. She sluggishly makes her way towards Scorpius, her fingers just barely holding onto a half-empty bottle of Firewhiskey.

"Er—Caitlyn?" he says uncertainly.

"Scor!" she slings her arm around Scorpius and giggles. "I'm _drunk._ "

"Clearly," he raises an eyebrow.

She roars with laughter like he just told the most hilarious joke she's ever heard. Scorpius hastily shushes her because, you know, they're not actually supposed to be in the corridors at night. Filch is constantly on the prowl. "It feels _weird_ ," she breathes, her eyes bright and dilated. "I can't really feel my feet."

Right on cue, she staggers nearly plants her face on the ground.

He hurriedly steadies her. "What's wrong with you? You don't usually drink…"

"Yes, but that was _before_ I knew how bloody awesome it was," she explains as quietly as possible, a huge smile on her face. "Now I'm going to drink—drink as much as I want…" Caitlyn holds up her bottle of Firewhiskey. "This stuff is amazing."

He snorts with barely contained laughter. "Right, you can barely even walk so I'm going to walk you back to your common room now."

"How nice of you."

Scorpius starts to haul her forward. She keeps up a steady stream of whispered conversation (well, it's not so much conversation as slurred, disjointed sentences that hardly make any sense at all) and all he does is nod and agree at random intervals to appease her. Although he thinks he could catch on fire now and she probably wouldn't even notice a thing.

They're rounding a corner when, without warning, Caitlyn stops talking. It's so abrupt Scorpius looks over in alarm. Fat tears are rolling down her cheeks, and she's starting to hyperventilate. It's a complete one eighty turn from her mood a few seconds ago and honestly? Scorpius is a little scared.

"I'm still in love with Toby," Caitlyn blurts, palming at her wet cheeks.

Scorpius stares. His mouth starts working on its own accord. "I think I might be in love with Rose."

(He's never even admitted this to himself before, but it's the wretched truth.)

Caitlyn jerks back in surprise, eyes widening. She takes a while to contemplate this. "This is so fucked up," she says, hiccoughing.

Scorpius wholly agrees.

-.-.-

Later, when it's about four in the morning and Scorpius's head is still buzzing too much for him to fall asleep, he comes to a nauseating conclusion: Scorpius has gone and landed himself smack bang in the middle of a love square.

(Fuck, when did his life become such a teenage cliché?)

Neither of them mention what happened that night again. Scorpius isn't sure if Caitlyn even _remembers_ what she did and what she said but he thinks subject matters like this would probably be better left alone.

-.-.-

Nearly one month of his seventh year passes before Scorpius even gets the chance to say a single word to Rose. He stumbles across her sitting in her usual spot in the library when he's looking for something for his latest Herbology assignment. Her coppery head buried in between the dusty pages of some book that's probably not even in their required curriculum. It's one of those rare moments where she's actually alone, and Toby is nowhere in sight.

Rose is so absorbed with her reading that she doesn't even notice he's there. His first reaction is to turn and leave her alone (it's what she wants, after all) but then he decides, _fuck that_.

"Hello, Weasley," he says.

Rose's head jerks away from the pages she's nearly kissing. Her mouth forms a perfect O. "Er. Hello, Scorpius."

(Hearing his name come out of her mouth does very strange things to him.)

He languidly drops himself into the chair opposite and makes himself comfortable. "Fancy seeing you here. In the library, of all places. Rather unusual, really. Didn't figure you for a reading type of person."

Rose's mouth forms a smile. "I had a bit of free time, so I'm doing a little light reading." She gestures at the book—A Complete History of Time-Travelling and It's Origins by Miranda Goshawk—that's anything but light.

Scorpius laughs a little. "So, what's going on? Haven't seen you around in a while."

"Oh, you know. Head Girl duties, homework, NEWTs… all that's been keeping me rather occupied. I barely have any time to breathe." Rose looks distinctly uncomfortable but neither of them bring up the topic of Toby forbidding Rose to interact with Scorpius. They both know that's the real reason why.

"NEWTs? Don't tell me you've already started NEWT revision," Scorpius is mildly horrified.

She looks scandalized. "Of course I've already started! I actually started during the summer holidays but now I think I should've started earlier."

He laughs because Rose Weasley? Just as crazy as ever.

She gazes at him with a curious, unreadable expression on her face. Silence falls and Rose breaks it a few seconds later with a quiet: "You didn't return my letter."

It takes him a moment to realize that she's talking about the letter that Scorpius currently has tucked away securely in the bottom of his trunk. _I miss you._

Her brown eyes are trained on him. See, this is where being a Legilimens would come in handy. He desperately wants to know what Rose is thinking.

"Yeah. Well. I miss you too," he says.

(He thinks this might be the first time he's ever said these words to a girl.)

Rose gives him a sad smile that he can't seem to decipher. There's something hovering in the air between them, something palpable but not quite tangible that's not entirely unpleasant. Neither of them say anything.

Then, the moment passes and she promptly starts filling him in on her extensive preparations for NEWTs. He spends the next few hours catching up with Rose to compensate for the fact that he hasn't said more than five words to her since the end of sixth year. It doesn't take long for him to realize that he genuinely misses hanging around with Rose. It's almost like old times again, when they used to be kind of, sort of best mates with each other.

Except this time round, _everything_ is different.

(It's the first time he spends his whole Sunday cooped up in the library.)

-.-.-

The next morning, Scorpius is on his usual morning jog. He's on his fifth lap when he sees the all-too-familiar distant figure of Rose sitting down on her rock with a book cradled in her hands. For a second he thinks it's a crazy hallucination, or something, but then she looks up and waves.

"Morning," Rose says, shutting her book. Her smile is tentative and unsure.

He slows down gradually and stops. "Morning," Scorpius replies, a million questions whirring about in his head. Before he can think, he blurts, "Didn't Toby tell you to stay away from me?"

The next second, he feels like kicking himself in the bollocks. There he goes, fucking everything up again. He shouldn't have even mentioned Toby's name.

Rose's expression morphs into distress. "Things with Toby… they're not going well."

This is definitely news to him. He'd never have guessed that things were going awry in the perfect relationship that was Rose-and-Toby. It's almost unbelievable. The way hope rises up in his chest is repulsive, but he tries valiantly to squash it back down. Scorpius arranges his face into a mask of distant curiosity and raises an eyebrow. "Really?"

She's silent for a bit. Scorpius makes himself comfortable on a patch of grass near her boulder. "Penny for your thoughts."

"You know what I think?" she abruptly turns her head and stares at him. "I think all boys are idiots."

"Harsh, Weasley," he laughs, interest piqued.

"I'm being completely serious! You're all idiots. It might be in different ways, and some are bigger idiots than others, but you're all idiots."

"And how exactly did you come to this enlightening conclusion?"

"Toby…" Rose lets out her breath. "I didn't think he would be like this," she admits quietly. "He keeps thinking you and me have something going on. Which isn't entirely true, but—" Rose shoots him an uncomfortable glance. "—it's becoming horribly suffocating. He keeps wanting to know where I am _all_ the time. And he seems to follow me around _everywhere_."

(The selfish part of him is doing victory whoops.)

She pulls her knees up. "I think… I think I idealized him. It's just that I've been wanting him for so long—almost since I was a Second Year—that I sort of built up this perfect version of Toby in my head. Caring, kind, and the most wonderful person ever. I honestly thought he could do no wrong. Which is why it comes as such a surprise when he's…"

"A total sod?" Scorpius helpfully supplies.

Rose laughs a little. "Well, _no_ , not that. He's just not who I thought he was."

"What's he done to piss you off, exactly?"

"He's done absolutely nothing. He is, for all intents and purposes, the best boyfriend anyone could ask for…"

Scorpius is a little confused. Of course, what he's hearing is all good news to him but he doesn't understand what her being here means for him. For both of them. "Then why're you here?"

"I… I don't know," she says helplessly. She sets her eyes on his. "I really don't know what I'm doing."

It's highly unusual to see Rose looking so lost and confused. Generally she has an answer for everything. Before he can stop himself, he reaches out and wraps his arms around her small form. Her head is tucked neatly under her chin. "You'll probably find out soon enough. So cheer up, Weasley."

"Thank you," her voice is small and muffled. "Can I just say something that I know you'll absolutely abhor?"

"Shoot."

"I think you'll make a really good boyfriend," Rose smiles hesitantly.

(He hates that he can _feel_ his pulse change. Also, she is the _queen_ of the mind fuck. If this isn't mixed signals, he doesn't know what is.)

So he pulls himself away from her and takes a step back. Deeps breaths. (He's just realizing now how cold it is. He's wondering how she can sit there in that skirt and he worries, for a second, that she's cold. Then he remembers that he's pissed, so he turns his back on her.)

"Scorpius?" Rose looks bewildered.

"This isn't _fair_ ," he says angrily. He's aware that he sounds positively childish. "It isn't fair for me, or for Toby."

(Yes, he can hardly believe that he's actually standing up for Toby, either.)

"But—"

"You can't just come to me every time he makes you angry. It doesn't work like that, for Merlin's sake."

"It's not like that!"

"Then _please_ tell me what this is." He gestures rapidly between him and Rose. "Because I'd really like to fucking know what's going on here."

"It's just that—everything between us is so easy and natural We're best friends, right? Or at least, we used to be. I hate this. I really do. I meant what I said yesterday, Scorpius. I miss you. I'm not—I'm not _playing_ with the both of you."

"Rose…"

"I just don't know which is supposed to be better. You know?" she seems close to tears.

"I hope you figure it out," he says coldly. It's happening again—he's seems to be automatically building up this icy wall of apathy so that no one, not even Rose, can see how much this bloody hurts.

"I'm _trying_ to, believe me," a tear slips down her cheek. (His thumb is itching to wipe it off, but his arm stays by his side.)

"It's simple. Make a choice. "

Rose looks up at him. "Don't make me do that."

"Just pick."

Rose stares, lost for words.

He makes sure his expression remains as stony as ever. "Looks like you've already made up your mind."

Then he turns and walks away.

* * *

**Author's Note** : Thank you for reading :)


	5. Seventh Year, Part II

* * *

**Seventh Year, Part II**

* * *

Scorpius is _done._

No, really. He is so over this. He's over pining over some girl that's always going to make him a second choice. He's over letting Rose walk all over him just because she thinks she can. He's over having his thoughts revolve around Rose _all the time_.

It's been a little more than three years since Scorpius has been dealing with this bullshit, and seriously, he's bloody exhausted.

(Seriously, there's got to be a way out. People fall out of love all the time, right?)

It's like he's trapped in this eternal limbo of wishing and wanting and he fully realizes just how futile it is but he can't escape.

After Scorpius leaves Rose at the Black Lake, he skips his next Potions lesson and spends it holed up in his dorm, lying spread-eagled on his bed and staring at the ceiling.

This is the last time. The last time he's ever going to let himself feel this disgustingly sorry for himself.

(Or at least, he hopes it's the last time.)

_Just let her be happy,_ Scorpius thinks dully.

-.-.-

Later that night, once the last person in the Slytherin common room goes up to bed, Albus immediately slams his quill down and glares at Scorpius from his armchair.

"Well?" he demands.

Scorpius pauses in the middle of scratching out his Charms essay. "What?"

Albus leans back and crosses his arms. " _Maaaaate_."

He's beginning to feel genuinely flummoxed. Albus is looking at him like Scorpius just personally insulted him. "What're we talking about?"

" _You_ know. You've been acting weird all day. You missed Potions. Something must've happened. Please don't tell me you and Toby are pissed each other off again. It's hard enough being friends with two people who won't even acknowledge each other when they're in the same bloody room."

Not for the first time, Scorpius feels a stab of guilt about the awkward position he's put Albus in. "Al, I'm really sorry about that—"

"I know you're sorry," Albus cuts through. "I just—I just don't _get it_. I know there's something else going on that you're not letting me in on. For the past few months—well, you haven't been yourself, Scor. I mean, you show up for lessons and games and practices but it's like you're not really _there._ You've…" he shrugs a little as he searches for the right word. "You've disappeared a little, you know?"

Albus' observations jolt him a little. He realizes that in addition to being a disgusting lovesick puppy he's also been a terrible friend. For the first time in a long time, Scorpius finds he doesn't know what to say.

"Look, I know you're kind of a private bloke and all but seeing as we're best mates I think I deserve to know what's going on."

Silence falls as Scorpius contemplates the truth of what Albus just said. He supposes Albus' outburst would've happened sooner or later, though he's surprised Albus managed to keep it in for that long.

"Okay. So here's the truth," Scorpius palms his face. "I don't know any other way to put this but… I sort of—like Rose. Or I used to. I don't know. But… yeah."

(It's still ridiculously difficult for him to admit it.)

Albus sits there for a moment, looking at him blankly. "You like Rose?"

"Basically."

" _Rose_? As in… Rose Weasley? Our Rose?"

"Do we know any other Rose?" Scorpius says dryly.

"So those times you kissed her... they actually meant something?"

"I guess."

There's another long stretch of silence. Then, Albus abruptly picks up a velvet pillow and lobs it at Scorpius as hard as he can.

"Why the _fuck_ does nobody tell me anything here?"

Before he can stop himself, Scorpius bursts into laughter at the sight of Albus' outraged expression. Albus leaps over and starts pummelling Scorpius. "Never—do—that—to-me—again—" Albus grunts with every blow that lands. Scorpius quickly uses the pillow to defend himself.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he wheezes out in between guffaws.

"Sorry—my—arse!" Albus deals Scorpius one last blow. "I want to know everything. Give me every last detail."

So he does. Scorpius tries not to leave anything out, even if it all began three years ago (Merlin, _three years_ ). It's the first time he's told anybody the full story and in the beginning the words are tough to get out. Strangely enough, the longer he talks, the better he feels. It almost feels therapeutic, in a way. Scorpius tells him all about his falling out with Toby, about Rose telling him to stay away from her, about the constant jealousy.

(He should've done this way earlier.)

Scorpius caps off his story with what happened earlier today at the Black Lake. "So… she picked Toby over me. And that's pretty much it."

Albus gapes at him open mouthed. "What d'you mean that's pretty much it?"

"There's nothing else. It's over with. The end."

Albus pushes his glasses back, visibly struggling to process everything. "This is some intense shit."

"Yeah."

"So… what do you do now?"

Scorpius gives a wry laugh. "There's nothing I _can_ do. I'll just forget about it. Shouldn't be too difficult."

"I'm gonna talk to Rose about this—"

"Don't!" Scorpius says quickly. "I don't want any more trouble. She—she already made it clear enough that she doesn't want anything more to do with me. It's best to just... let it die down."

Albus contemplates this silently. "Alright. Fine. I'll do whatever you want me to do. But, Scor, next time just _tell_ me, right?"

Scorpius grins (it's the first genuine grin he's had in ages). "I promise."

-.-.-

When Scorpius goes up to bed later that night, he makes sure everybody in his dormitory is asleep before carefully lifting up the lid of his trunk and fishing out Rose's _I miss you_ letter. It's neatly folded into eighths and tucked safely under a pile of his schoolbooks.

Scorpius smoothes the paper out and studies Rose's curly script, twirling his wand slowly in his fingers.

Then, he sets it on his bedside table and whispers: "Incendio."

The letter goes up in a quick burst of purple flames. All that's left seconds later is a tiny pile of ash. He dusts the ash off his bedside table and finally falls asleep after hours of tossing and turning.

-.-.-

For the next couple of weeks, Scorpius puts everything he has into his schoolwork and Quidditch in an effort to distract himself from Rose. Whenever he has joint classes with Gryffindor he carefully makes sure he never so much as says a single word to her. If there's a party that he knows she's going to, Scorpius just doesn't show up. Rose seems to be returning his cold shoulder by basically acting like he doesn't exist either.

Though sometimes, out of the corner of his eye, Scorpius thinks he catches Rose watching him in classrooms or across the Great Hall.

(Most likely just his imagination.)

-.-.-

Before he even knows it, December arrives and Hogwarts lets out for Christmas break. He spends most of it at the Malfoy Manor but on Christmas Eve the Malfoys—both his parents included—are invited to a massive dinner party at the Burrow.

(He completely expects his father to kick up a small fuss when he shows them the invite but to Scorpius' surprise he hardly even says anything.)

They Apparate onto Ottery St. Catchpole sometime in the evening and the first thing that comes out of Scorpius' mouth is: "Holy shit."

Someone had apparently decided that draping the Burrow with thousands and thousands of multi-coloured Christmas lights was an excellent idea. Even from afar, the entire house glows like a beacon in the dimming sunlight. All three of them stand there gawping in wonder for a few moments. It's so fucking bright it's almost blinding. Scorpius actually has to shield his eyes a little.

"Weasleys," his father mutters, shaking his head like it explains everything.

(To be fair, it probably does.)

Grandma Molly gives them all enthusiastic hugs when they step through the front door. "Oh, it's so lovely to see you all here!"

The house is completely packed to the brim with people. The usual Potter-Weasley crowd seems to be present—Aunt Ginny shoots a wink from behind the kitchen table and James Potter gives him a quick salute—but there's tons of people there that he's never even laid eyes on.

"I like what you've done with the house," Scorpius says, barely managing to conceal his grin. Grandma Molly beams.

"I just love the colours, don't you? Which reminds me—" she reaches behind her and retrieves three knitted jumpers out of, like, fucking nowhere. "I've knitted one for everybody in every possible shade. Here—" she hands Scorpius a dark forest green jumper. "Astoria, take the fuchsia one and this is yours, Draco."

His father wordlessly accepts a jumper in the most lurid, obnoxious shade of highlighter orange ever.

(This might just be the best day of his life.)

"Ron told me this lovely shade was your favourite colour, Draco, so I hope you like it!"

His father's eyes widen and his head snaps around to scan the crowd. Uncle Ron is standing a few feet away quietly sniggering into his elbow. It takes Scorpius monumental effort not to burst out into laughter himself.

"Go on, put them on!" she looks at them expectantly. Both his mother and Scorpius cheerfully put their jumpers on, while his father just stands there clutching his own with a truly horror-struck expression on his face.

"Oh, come on. It's all part of the festivities! Everybody's wearing one," Scorpius smiles innocently. The older Malfoy looks at him like he wants to wring his neck.

"Is there something wrong?" Grandma Molly frowns, looking a little offended.

"Oh no, no," his father grinds out. Slowly, he removes his cloak and pulls his jumper on. The jumper clashes horribly with his blonde hair. As if things couldn't get any better, there's a gigantic DM in lime green on the front.

(Yeah, _definitely_ the best day of his life.)

-.-.-

He manages to avoid Rose for the entirety of the Christmas party.

It's not that hard, considering the amount of people present. When he sees her familiar coppery head come round the corner—something in his heart still jolts painfully every time he sees her—Scorpius just ducks away and starts talking to any random person that's nearby. Unfortunately, the third time this happens, Scorpius inadvertently strikes up a conversation with Lorcan and Lysander Scamander.

"—so that's why Exploding Snabberwitches should only be approached at exactly two in the morning," Lorcan explains seriously. Lysander bobs his head up and down at rapid speed. "Otherwise they get very aggressive and you could end up with a bad case of the Dabberblimp Blinkies."

"Uh hmm," Scorpius has no fucking idea what they're on about. "I agree completely. We wouldn't want that. Great advice."

"Our mother told us—"

"Listen," Scorpius interrupts as politely as he can the moment he sees that Rose is gone. "I've got to step out for a while but it was—wonderful seeing you two again."

"Watch out for Heliopaths! They always breed faster during Christmas!" Lysander shouts after him as Scorpius hurriedly steps out of the back door onto the veranda. It takes him a moment to realize that he isn't alone.

"Heliopaths, was it?" a lone figure sitting on the front steps giggles.

Scorpius squints in the faint light. He can just about make out a small, slight Weasley girl with a steaming cup of something cradled in her hands.

"Think so. I wasn't really listening, to be honest," he takes a hesitant step forward. "Sorry, am I bothering you? Should I go back in?"

"Not unless you want to learn about Humdingers," the girl pats the empty space beside her. "Come sit for a bit, I don't mind."

So he does. The girl seems vaguely familiar. The hair and light smattering of freckles across her nose are a tell-tale sign. Her jumper has an M on it but it's not giving him any clues. "Which Weasley are you? There's so bloody many I can never keep track."

She shrugs. "It's the first time I've been back at the Burrow since I was like, twelve, so I'm not surprised. My mum's not Grandma Molly's hugest fan. I'm Molly."

Scorpius suddenly recalls a hazy memory of the twelve-year-old version of Molly playing Quidditch with them during one of his earlier summers spent at the Burrow. "Oh! Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey's kid?"

"That's me."

"Wow. I almost forgot you existed."

"Charming."

"Ravenclaw, right?"

"At least you got that right. Sixth-year."

"Huh. So why don't you come over more often?"

"Well…" she shifts in her seat a little and pushes her hair back. "I dunno. My mum and Grandma Molly have never really gotten along, I guess. They're—they're very different people. So I mostly just spend my summers and Christmases over at my other grandparents' place. I'm only here tonight because my dad insisted and my mum caved."

"And here I was thinking that I already knew all of the Weasleys. I'm—"

"Yeah, Scorpius Malfoy. I know," Molly looks amused. "It's hard _not_ to know you in Hogwarts."

"Well, it's tricky to lie low when you're as stunningly good-looking as me, so…"

"Oh, sod off," she laughs and takes a small sip from her mug.

(It's a nice laugh.)

"You should've come over more. I remember you being pretty good at Quidditch, actually. Except for the time when—"

"—when I didn't look where I was flying and went straight into the pond?" Molly supplies. Scorpius starts sniggering at the memory. "So you don't remember my name but you remember _that_?"

"It was fucking hilarious!"

"You were horrible about it even then," Molly accused. "You and Albus wouldn't let me forget about that for weeks! And to think I actually had a crush on you."

"Everybody does, at some point or another," Scorpius grins broadly, but he can't suppress a small bolt of surprise. It's not a bad feeling.

She does an exaggerated eye roll. "I was _twelve_. Obviously my infatuation with you blinded me to the fact that you're clearly an arsehole."

"Ouch."

"You'll get over it. You've probably been called worse."

"You already know me so well."

Before she can say anything else, Caitlyn suddenly pops her blonde head through the back door. "Molly! Scor! Come in, Ted's got an announcement."

"Let's go back in," Molly picks herself up. "But it was nice seeing you again anyway," she smiles and gives him a quick hug.

"You too," he returns the smile.

(It's only later on that he realizes his smile was actually sincere.)

-.-.-

Back inside, everybody's already crowded around the fireplace. It's so crammed with people that Scorpius can hardly see so he makes do by balancing precariously on a small stool. Ted is standing right in front of the crackling hearth with a glass of red wine in his hand. Today, his hair is a crackling shade of pillar box red that matches his Weasley jumper to a tee. He clears his throat loudly and the whole room goes silent.

"So. I'm just going to make it short and sweet. Since almost everybody I know and love is here tonight I thought it'd be the perfect time to tell you all that—well—" Teddy reaches out a hand and pulls Victoire over. She's beaming from ear to ear. "—we're getting married."

The whole room collectively pauses for a moment before exploding. Seriously, Scorpius doesn't think he's ever heard this much screaming and whooping before ever in his life, even at the Quidditch games he's played at. Almost everybody surges forward and starts hugging Ted, hugging Vic, hugging everybody. It's total chaos. From across the room, Scorpius can see his mum aww-ing at the scene, and the slightest smile is playing at the corners of his father's mouth. Aunt Fleur literally just bursts into hysterical tears.

(He also sees Rose giving Vic a congratulatory kiss on her cheek, but he lets his gaze slide over like he never saw her at all.)

He finds himself grinning like an idiot. It's impossible not absorb _some_ of the joy and happiness in the room.

-.-.-

The Christmas party starts dying out at around one or two in the morning. People filter out of the Burrow in twos or threes, and after his father's had his last glass of mulled mead the Malfoys also head for home.

Just as Scorpius is about to step out of the door, Rose comes out of nowhere and quickly grabs him by the hand. Her hair is tied into a single messy braid down her back. "Merry Christmas," she says with a small, almost anxious smile and just as abruptly she disappears into the kitchen. He has no time to react, no time to say _thank you, Rose_ or _hey, Rose, how've you been_ or even _what the fuck is this about Rose why do you have to keep doing this to me_.

"Scorpius?" his mother calls from beyond the front door. Both his parents are already halfway down the hill.

"Coming," he answers loudly, and hastily shuts the door behind him.

-.-.-

For this year's New Year's Eve, Scorpius and a group of other Weasley-Potters go down to the local pub in Ottery St Catchpole to celebrate 2024. By the time its five to midnight, James, Fred and Teddy are bellowing out an acapella version of "Auld Lang Syne", Louis Weasley is already snoring on the countertop, and Dom is kind of swaying by herself on the dance floor.

He can't help himself from noticing, but tonight Toby is nowhere to be seen. Usually it's like Rose-and-Toby are glued together at the hips, but for whatever reason Arlington was mysteriously absent.

(Scorpius isn't complaining.)

"Ten!" someone yells out a countdown. "Nine!"

"Eight!" Vic cries out throatily.

"Seven!"

Everybody starts to crowd around together in anticipation.

"Six! Five!"

Scorpius puts his arms around the two people that are standing nearest to him—Albus and Molly.

"Four! Three!"

He looks around and sees Rose looking up at the clock with a peculiarly miserable look on her face. She's been kind of quiet the whole night but that expression makes him want to go over and ask her what's wrong.

"Two!"

Even if he's pretty bloody sure it was something to do with Toby not being here tonight.

"One!"

(He almost talks to her. _Almost._ )

-.-.-

"I don't think our compartment's ever been this empty," Albus says, looking thoroughly disheartened.

It's true—usually the Weasley-Potter Hogwarts Express compartment is so full you can hardly scratch your nose without poking somebody in the eye, but this time it was abnormally spacious.

"James, Fred and Dom are gone," Scorpius counts off his fingers. "Louis, Roxie and Hugo got prefect, Rose is Head Girl…"

"This is so depressing," Albus slides open the compartment door and starts looking around expectantly, as though hoping for some distant Weasley cousin to just materialize out of nowhere.

"Speak for yourself," Lily says, stretching out on the upholstery. "I don't think I've been this comfortable on the Hogwarts Express, _ever_. The compartment's actually pretty big when there's not, you know, thirty people in here."

"Yeah, I kind of forgot the seats were purple," Scorpius adds, kicking up his feet on the opposite seat. "Also, have they always been leather?"

"Ha ha," Albus says sourly. Suddenly, he brightens up. "Hold on!"

He dashes out without any further explanation. Scorpius looks at Lily questioningly. "Don't look at me," she shrugs. "I never know what goes on inside his head."

A few moments later, Albus returns. "Look who I found!" he exclaims triumphantly. A very familiar red haired girl pokes her head round the corner and gives a little wave. "I got Molly!"

"Oh, hey!" Scorpius says, a little startled. He never expected to see her again after their brief meeting at the Christmas party, to be honest.

"What's up with Al?" she asks, perplexed.

"Apparently he misses everybody being here," Lily says.

"Yeah, don't mind him, he's just being emotional," Scorpius chimes in.

"Oh, come on!" Albus throws his arms in the air. "Where's the family love?"

Lily points at Scorpius. " _He's_ not family."

Albus looks supremely put out. "You guys are such downers."

Molly plonks herself down in front of Scorpius. "How come you don't usually sit with us on the train?" Scorpius asks, curious.

"It's just kind of hard to sit when it's always packed. I like to be able to use my wand without having to worry about it going up someone's nose," she explains, crossing her arms. "So I just sit with a couple of other Ravenclaws. But then Albus came barging in out of nowhere and dragged me here. But since there's four of us…" she retrieves a pack of cards from the front of her robes. "Exploding Snap?"

-.-.-

They play five rounds and Scorpius comes off worst in three of them. When he loses the sixth, his deck of cards explodes and singes off both his eyebrows. Unsurprisingly, Albus, Lily and Molly burst into fits of laughter when the smoke clears.

"Oh, shut the fuck up," Scorpius grumbles. "Anyone know how to grow them back?"

"Don't worry, I've got a spell," Molly whips out her wand, tucking her short red hair behind her left ear. "Does anybody have a camera first though—"

"Don't even think about it."

"Fine, fine. So touchy," she grins, and leans over to push his fringe back. She places her fingers under his chin to tilt his head back a little. She comes in pretty close, so close Scorpius catches a whiff of the fruity smell of her shampoo. Just as Molly finishes muttering the incantation, the compartment door slides open.

"I'm _finally_ done with briefing the Prefects—" Rose, of all people, steps through. She pauses mid-sentence as she takes in the scene before her. A peculiar expression crosses over her face. "What's going on?"

Scorpius freezes in place. It's so fucking stupid but he feels like he's been caught in the middle of something he shouldn't be doing. Which is ridiculous, considering _nothing_ was happening anyway and it's not like Rose would give a shit if there was.

(Would she?)

"Hey, Rose," Molly says cheerfully. "Exploding Snap. Scor here lost both his eyebrows."

"Oh," is all Rose says. She glances at Scorpius and quickly looks away again. "Well, erm, I'd better get going," then she shuts the door and vanishes.

Lily raises her eyebrow. "That was odd."

" _Really_ odd," Molly's brow furrows.

Albus shoots him a look so unsubtle Scorpius almost rolls his eyes.

-.-.-

Quidditch practice resumes the next Tuesday. As per usual, it's scheduled at the crack of dawn, even though it's in the middle of January and it's fucking _freezing_ outside. Unfortunately, Toby has this insane theory that somehow the air density in the morning allows for faster, easier flying.

(Scorpius calls total bullshit on that one but whatever, he's the captain.)

The moment Toby walks onto the pitch in his Quidditch robes Scorpius can tell something's off about him. They were, after all—as much as Scorpius hates to admit it—best mates for a long time. To anybody else he would've seemed absolutely normal, but Scorpius can see that he's gritting his teeth and a muscle in a jaw is working.

"Alright team!" Toby yells. "Huddle up! We're going to start off with our regular practice laps around the pitch—I want to make sure no one got rusty over Christmas."

Everyone follows his orders. Just as Scorpius is about to kick off after Albus, Toby abruptly holds a hand out to stop him. There's a bizarre look of abhorrence on Toby's face that Scorpius is kind of taken aback by.

"Malfoy!" he barks loudly. "Remember what I told you about your grip on your broom handle? I told you, left hand over the right! _Get it together!_ "

It's so out of the blue that Scorpius just stands there, incredulous, for a few seconds.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees other members of the team look at each other in bewilderment. It's the first time Toby's ever really raised his voice at anyone. Usually, he's all smiles and manners.

It takes all of his willpower not to tackle him to the ground there and then. Instead, he reluctantly switches his hands and shoots him a look of absolute loathing. "Yes, _captain_ ," he interjects as much sarcasm as possible into the last word and flies off.

(What the fuck is _his_ problem?)

-.-.-

It gets worse.

Normally Toby is already extra nit-picky over everything Scorpius does during Quidditch practice, but today is definitely the worst two hours that he's ever endured. The fact that Scorpius is the only person that Toby is focusing just makes it all the more horrible. In fact, Toby seems to paying no attention to all the other players at all. Albus comes over a few times to say, "Mate, what in Merlin's name is up with you?" but Toby just waves him off and continues to lash out at Scorpius.

The anger inside his chest grows every time Toby opens his big fat ugly gob. By the time practice is almost ending, the anger has evolved into a massive ball of pure, unadulterated rage. But he knows, he just _knows_ that all Toby's looking for is a reaction. It's in Toby's face every time he verbally attacks him; he wants to know that he's getting under his skin. There's no way he's going to let him get what he wants.

(It's also really, _really_ hard to look for a tiny golden ball when someone is flying right beside you, screeching in your ear.)

"Malfoy! I don't think I've ever seen such miserable Seeking!" Toby suddenly appears beside him. Scorpius looks straight ahead and ignores Toby. He's gripping his broom handle so hard his fingers are almost cramping up. "It's an embarrassment! I don't even know why the hell you're still on the team—"

The ball of rage takes over and Scorpius just _snaps_. He whirls his head around and roars: " _Shut the fuck up!_ "

The moment Scorpius answers, Toby's eyes light up. The both of them touch down onto the pitch and Scorpius is practically boiling over. Toby looks at him triumphantly. "What was that you said there, Malfoy?"

He hates the fact that he's shorter than him, but Scorpius goes right up into Toby's face and repeats, enunciating very carefully: "Shut. The. Fuck. _Up._ "

Having heard the screaming match, several other team members also descend to the pitch and watch with apprehension. Yvonne Belby, a Chaser, takes a step forward. "Look—" she begins, intending to break them up, but is cut off when Toby holds out an authoritative hand to silence her.

"I'm captain," Toby says calmly, pointing to his robes. "And as captain, I believe I have the right to correct your appalling flying skills—"

"Just kick me off then!" Scorpius shouts, seeing red. At this point he honestly can't be fucked anymore. "Kick me off! I don't know what the bloody hell's stopping you! What, you want to keep me around just so you can keep screaming at me? Huh? Does it make you feel _big_?"

Toby rolls his eyes as if to say _oh wow isn't Scorpius being so difficult right now, guys?_ and smiles generously at Scorpius. He didn't think it was possible to feel even more furious than he already was, but a fresh wave of anger flares through him.

Albus suddenly swoops by, jumps off his broom and quickly steps in between the two of them. "Oy," he says worriedly. "Just calm down, the two of you—"

Scorpius side-steps Albus. "What, does it make you feel _better_ about yourself? You think yelling at me will make Rose love you more? Is _that_ it? Get the fuck over yourself, I kissed her _two fucking years ago_ —"

He never gets to finish his sentence. Toby's eyes suddenly blaze with fury and his fist comes flying in. Before Scorpius knows it, he's lying on his back on the freezing cold ground, looking up at the sky. The pain barely registers before Toby's on top of him, pummelling every square inch of skin that he can find.

"Don't you talk about Rose!" Toby bellows. "Don't—you—talk—about—her—"

Dimly, Scorpius can hear the rest of team screaming and shouting in horror. He manages to blindly land a few blows of his own before he feels Toby's heavy mass being pulled off of him. The pain is so severe he can't even cry out in agony. He just lays there, concentrating on not passing out. Just breathing is already a struggle so Scorpius is pretty much sure his nose his broken.

Albus' face floats above his. Scorpius blinks what feels like blood out of his eyes. "Scor, we're going to get you to the Hospital Wing, right? Just hang on, mate, hang on."

Right on cue, everything goes black.

-.-.-

He wakes up abruptly in a hospital bed.

It takes a while for him to remember what got him here in the first place. When he does recall, he just lays there laughing wryly to himself for a bit because the whole thing was just stupid. Definitely not a good idea for him to fly off the handle like that — he'd be paying for that for a while.

(Also, Toby might just be fucking mental.)

He has no idea what time it is, but he can see moonlight shining through the windows. The hospital is filled with the gentle sound of other snores. He manages to pull himself up in his bed with some difficulty. One of his eyes is bandaged over and there are strips of cloth wrapped around his lower face. Broken jaw. Toby's a complete psychopath but he did admittedly do a fairly good job of fucking Scorpius' face up.

His vision is still slightly blurry so he can only sort of make out the Hospital Wing in the dark. He turns to his right and immediately realizes Rose is curled up into a chair right next to his bed, fast asleep. There's enough moonlight filtering through the windows to illuminate half of her face.

For a moment Scorpius allows himself to feel all the misery and heartache that he's been keeping inside for the past few months, maybe even years. She's just so fucking _beautiful._ Even if there are dark circles under her eyes and her hair looks a complete mess. How is it possible to have so many feelings for somebody that will never feel the same way?

He watches her breathe for a moment while sitting there mulling over whether or not he should wake her up. Of course he wants to talk to her, but he's been doing such a good job of avoiding Rose lately that he would hate to break that streak. After an hour of just sitting there and sifting through the reeling thoughts in his brain, he decides to go to sleep.

(It's for his own good.)

-.-.-

Rose is gone in the morning.

That's the first thing he notices when opens his eyes. The next thing he notices is that all his facial bandages have disappeared. He lifts a finger to gingerly prod his cheek. It's still a little sore but nothing he can't handle.

"Wow. You look hideous," someone to his left observes. Scorpius groggily turns and sees Molly Weasley laying down casually in the bed next to his.

"Eh?" he manages.

"When they brought you in yesterday I didn't get a proper look at your face but—" she whistles appreciatively. "Toby _really_ messed you up."

"Mirror," he grunts. Smiling, Molly reaches over passes him a small handheld mirror from her bedside table. Scorpius holds it up and braces himself. Almost every square inch of his face is bruised. His nose, obviously magically repaired, is ever so slightly crooked. His right eye is still a little swollen. All in all, not too bad.

"You bled all over your Quidditch things," Molly points at a neatly-folded pile of robes on the edge of his bed. "Madam Pomfrey cleaned those for you, no worries. Oh, speak of the devil."

Madam Pomfrey comes bustling over with a bottle of something in her hands. "Morning, Malfoy! Feeling all better this morning?"

"Yeah," Scorpius shrugs, wincing as the action sends a lance of pain through his body. Madam Pomfrey doesn't miss any of it.

"Ah, you're still feeling sore, then? Don't worry, that'll pass in a few more hours or so. In the mean time," the grey-haired matron carefully measures out a glass of the liquid from the bottle. It was an unremarkable shade of milky white. "Drink this. You lost three of your teeth and this'll grow them back nicely."

"Ooh, that stuff's foul," Molly comments from her bed. "I had to drink NeuTeeth once, too."

"Oh, nonsense, it tastes just like pumpkin juice—"

Scorpius starts choking as soon as the potion hits his tongue. Foul was an understatement. The potion burns all the way down his throat. It's so incredibly uncomfortable, Scorpius starts to cough so violently his whole body is bent double.

"Excellent," Madam Pomfrey removes the glass from his hand. "Give it a day, your teeth will be back by then. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go tend to some other students."

Even as Madam Pomfrey is walking away, Scorpius still feels like he's going to hack up a kidney. Eventually the coughing fit abates and he lies back down on his bed, exhausted.

"Nasty, isn't it?" Molly says conversationally.

"Worst thing I've ever tasted," Scorpius replies hoarsely.

"I heard about what happened," Molly flips through an old, tattered copy of Teen Witch. "Couldn't believe it at first. Toby Arlington, of all people. Head Boy."

"Yeah, well, you better fucking believe it."

"Xavier Zabini, the Chaser, told me everything," she says in a hushed voice. She abandons Teen Witch. "Apparently Toby was slagging you off the whole practice and then he just _flipped_. No reason why. Laid into you like you were a slab of meat. Not pretty. Toby didn't come out of it too well, either. He left a few hours ago but he had to fix a broken nose, too."

Scorpius snorts a little. "I don't even know why, either. The whole time he was in a mood. Never asked. But whatever, at least I laid a few on him. Been waiting for ages to clobber Arlington, anyway."

Molly laughs a little. "He seems like he's gone off his rocker a little, hasn't he?"

"No shit."

Even so, thinking back, Scorpius is still baffled by what happened. Toby just wasn't the kind of person that flew off his handle like that. It seemed like Scorpius had done something to massively piss him off but he had barely even spoken to either Rose or Toby for the past few months. He racks his brains for the next few minutes, trying to remember anything that he might've said or done that could've possibly induced that much rage.

(He comes up totally blank.)

The whole thing just seems so incredibly out of character he briefly considers the possibility that Toby might have been Imperiused. Now _that_ would actually make a lot more sense.

"So what're you in here for?" Scorpius asks Molly curiously.

"Oh," she waves a hand. "Botched a Jelly-Legs Jinx during Defence of the Dark Arts. Turns out I accidentally removed my femur and now I'm stuck here waiting for it to grow back. Should be any day now," she uses her wand to prod her upper leg.

"Rough. How long have you already been here?"

"Two days and counting. I'm _so_ bored. Which is why I'm so happy you're stuck in here too!" Molly says gleefully. "Now I have a chess partner!" she pulls out a small chess set.

Scorpius instantly groans. "That's not fair. You guys have Uncle Ron to teach you how to play chess, of course you're going to beat me."

"You have no choice," Molly beams angelically. "You literally can't run away. So, do you want to be black or white?"

-.-.-

They play four games (all of which Scorpius loses spectacularly) before Albus and Caitlyn come walking into the Hospital Wing. Both of them look extremely anxious.

"Al!" Scorpius greets, grinning. It's been almost two days since he last saw him.

"You're finally conscious!" Albus reaches over to give him a thump on his back, and quickly apologises when Scorpius lets out a groan of pain.

"Oh, but your face looks terrible," Caitlyn peers closely at his bruises, being her usual concerned, motherly self.

"So I've been told," he looks over at Molly and gives her a little amused wink. She winks back, chuckling. "I'm fine, Madame Pomfrey says I'll be out soon."

"They came over yesterday but you were still out cold," Molly explains. Albus nods. "Couldn't get you to wake up. How's the femur growing, by the way, Moll?"

"It's coming along nicely."

"Good, good…" Albus says vaguely. He suddenly leans in, a troubled expression on his face. "Listen. About what happened that day…"

Scorpius shrugs again (ouch). "No idea, mate. Literally came out of nowhere. Never saw it coming."

Albus' brow furrows. "I swear I didn't do anything to him—" Scorpius begins defensively.

"No, no, I believe you," Albus quickly interjects. "I've been thinking about it a lot."

"We don't understand how that happened," Caitlyn adds. "You two know as well as I do that's definitely not normal for Toby. And seeing how he wasn't even provoked in the first place…" she trails off.

"It's been pretty serious, you know," Albus says heavily. "Toby's lost Head Boy and his Quidditch captaincy is suspended indefinitely."

It takes Scorpius a while to process this. "Whoa," is all he can say. He's past the point where he feels sorry for Toby because, you know, he fucking punched him first and Scorpius didn't do shit. He kind of deserves it. Still, he can understand the gravity of just happened to him.

"Yeah. 'Whoa' just about sums it up," Caitlyn leans her elbows on his bed. "We've been trying to talk to him but he refuses to say anything."

"So we were just wondering if you knew," Albus rubs his chin and runs his hand through his messy black hair. "But since even you don't… I guess no one knows. But anyway, we've got to get back to class soon. Lunch ends in ten minutes." Albus tosses both Molly and Scorpius a slightly squashed ham sandwich. "Hospital food's the worst. Don't let Madam Pomfrey see. I tried sneaking in a whole roast chicken once for James. Needless to say, it didn't work out too well."

Scorpius hungrily rips into his sandwich. "I love you."

"By the way, Scor," Albus pops his head around the corner just as he's walking out. "Detention for two weeks from McGonagall."

(Great. Just what he needed.)

-.-.-

He spends the rest of his day playing endless games of chess before eventually even Molly gets tired of the game. Then, they moves on to Hangman. After _that_ , she pulls out a few Gobstones from her robe pockets. When they run out of games to play, they just lie there chatting for an hour or so.

Molly turns out to be surprisingly easy to talk to. She seems to be constantly peppy and enthusiastic about practically everything. Scorpius doesn't really see Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey around, so he's a little curious about her family. Molly happily fills him in on everything, accompanied with a couple of anecdotes. Also, she's kind of a funny girl. Scorpius doesn't expect to but she makes him laugh out loud a couple of times. Especially when she does an excellent impression of her dad warbling "A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love" by Celestina Warbeck.

(His jaw is still sore from the teeth re-growing so talking is kind of a chore at first but as the time passes he stops noticing the pain.)

-.-.-

When Molly falls asleep, Scorpius quickly seizes the opportunity to beckon Madam Pomfrey over. After she checks on the progress of his teeth, he asks her, "Did I get any visitors last night?"

"Oh, yes, one," Madam Pomfrey busily smoothes down his bed covers. "Rose Weasley. She stayed overnight. Really, it's against the rules for anybody to stay overnight but she absolutely insisted. I told her you were unconscious and it was pointless but she wouldn't listen. The girl seemed quite close to tears as well so I just gave in," she clicks her tongue disapprovingly. "A friend of yours?"

(He realizes he doesn't know what the right answer to that question is.)

"Yeah. Yeah, sort of."

-.-.-

Scorpius gets discharged before Molly. The next morning when Madam Pomfrey does a thorough check of his oral cavity, she pronounces his teeth perfectly fine and fully grown.

"One more day for me," Molly moans, crossing her arms. "I swear I'm going to go stir-crazy in here."

"You'll be fine," Scorpius grins. He shrugs his school robes on and runs his fingers through his white-blond hair. "Merlin, it feels good to be able to stand again. How's the face?"

"Eh, you're not too bad," she cocks her head to the side. "Sorry, seems you've lost some of those stunningly good looks of yours."

Scorpius does an exaggerated hair flip. "Darling, they were never gone."

Molly laughs out loud. "Alright, take care in the outside world. I'll join you soon."

Scorpius gathers all his things and ruffles her hair a little. "Patience. You'll be out tomorrow. I'll see you, Moll."

He starts to walk out of the Hospital Wing but stops when Molly calls out his name.

"So when're you going to ask me out?" she asks.

For a moment Scorpius is too surprised to say anything. Of course he likes Molly. He likes Molly just fine. He's just never even considered the prospect of going out with her.

(There's also the fact that he's kind of, sort of in love with some other redhead.)

The logical thing would be to let Molly down gently, and tell her that he just isn't interested. And yet… why not? They get along together just fine. Bloody hell, he's had girlfriends that he liked less than Molly Weasley. And—well—it's not like the Rose thing is going anywhere.

"Three Broomsticks, next Hogsmeade weekend?" he finds himself saying.

"Perfect," Molly gives him a wide smile and turns back to her Teen Witch. Her behavior is totally casual but she starts blushing wildly.

(He's smiling too as he leaves the Hospital Wing.)

* * *

**A/N:** Part III soon!


	6. Seventh Year, Part III

* * *

**Seventh Year, Part III**

* * *

Scorpius almost changes his mind.

It's not that he doesn't _like_ Molly. If anything, Molly is actually kind of a great girl. Of course, she's the total opposite of all the girls Scorpius has dated in the past, but maybe that's a good thing. She's funny, she's attractive, they get along with each other just fine.

But when he's standing in the Front Hall waiting for Molly so that they can go to Hogsmeade together, all he feels is guilt.

(Which is totally fucking stupid, he knows.)

He's not doing anything wrong. Not at all. He's allowed to go out with whomever he bloody wants, for Merlin's sake, even if that girl is Rose's cousin. Although Rose and Scorpius never actually dated, so it's not like he's breaking any rules here.

(Right?)

Yet, every time he sees a red head amongst the sea of students excitedly filing out of the huge double doors of the hall, his heart skips a beat and he feels like he's just been caught with his hands down a proverbial cookie jar.

"Scor!" a female voice says from behind him.

Scorpius just about has a heart attack. He jumps and hits his head on a dangling lamp.

"Why so jumpy?" Molly starts to hoot with laughter. Her hair is up in a ponytail and she's all bundled up in her coat and a Ravenclaw scarf as protection against the cold January air.

"You terrified me," is all Scorpius manages to say, as his heart gradually returns to a normal pace. " _Fucking_ hell."

"I didn't realize you got scared so easily," Molly rolls her eyes. "Sorry, _how_ are you the stud of Hogwarts again?"

Scorpius rolls his eyes too, but he's smiling. "What a way to start this off," he puts his arm around her and they both start walking towards Filch, who's going through every student's bag with a meticulous zeal that's almost worrying. "Let's just get this bloody date over with, right?"

Molly punches his shoulder. "Oy! Like I held you at wandpoint?"

"You may as well have," he puts on a high-pitched, girlish voice. " _Oh, Scor, so when are you going to ask me out, hmmm?_ " Molly squawks indignantly at the horrendous impression. "I was basically cornered, you brazen minx."

"Oh please, you would've asked me out sooner or later, anyway," she says, looking up at him with a bold, almost saucy grin.

(Would he have? He has no idea.)

"Don't flatter yourself, Mol," Scorpius gently flicks her ponytail. "I have standards, you know."

-.-.-

They continue joke-bickering with each other all the way to Hogsmeade. Scorpius notices that a lot of the other students are shooting them curious looks, coupled with some furious whispering and pointing. When you're in a school with barely a thousand students, gossip spreads quickly. Which means that soon enough most people—maybe Rose—would hear that Scorpius and Molly are now an item.

(Which isn't true. It's just a date. And really, why should he care if Rose finds out? They're barely even friends anymore.)

The ground is still blanketed with snow so both Scorpius and Molly take turns using Incendio to melt a pathway in front of them, competing to see who can dissolve the longest distance of snow with a single jet of the spell. Scorpius is in the lead when they finally slip into Three Broomsticks, shaking the snow off their heads.

It's absolutely packed with people trying to escape the bitter winter air, so they pick a tiny table cramped into the corner of the pub, right by a frosty window.

"M'lady," Scorpius gallantly pulls out a chair for Molly. She flutters her eyelashes mockingly and makes herself comfortable. "So, what do you want to drink?"

"Just get me a steaming hot mug of anything," Molly removes her gloves and uses the flame of a fat burning candle to warm them up. "I'm absolutely freezing."

Scorpius jostles his way to the bar and gets them both some hot mulled mead—but not before a little harmless flirting with Madam Rosmerta.

(What? The woman's pushing fifty but she's still ridiculously attractive.)

"Perfect," Molly exclaims when he sets the two glasses down. She takes a long sip and smacks her lips afterwards. "So. Why'd you say yes?"

"To what?" Scorpius drinks a mouthful of his own glass. It warms him up so quickly he's convinced the mead has to be charmed somehow.

"The date. Why'd you agree?"

"I was feeling pretty charitable so I thought I'd do you a favour—ow!" Molly punches him in the arm again. "Well, I mean, I just kind of thought why not, you know? Haven't been out with a girl for a while."

Molly looks visibly surprised. " _Really_? You, of all people?"

Scorpius grimaces a little at her reaction. "Yeah, um, I know. About my reputation. I used to be a huge arsehole—"

"Used to?"

"Oh, shut up. _Used_ to be a huge arsehole, but now I'm getting a little embarrassed about that, to be honest."

Molly mulls this over. "Come to think of it, I haven't heard much about you and your girl-of-the-week in a while. What happened?"

Scorpius shrugs and looks outside the window. "I guess it's just not my thing anymore..." he trails off when he spots—really, who else could it be?—Rose Weasley trudging alone in the snow with a stack of books clutched to her chest. She doesn't spot him, and soon enough she's out of view.

"What? Scor? What're you looking at?" Molly peers outside too, confused.

Scorpius shakes his head a little and turns away from the window. "Nobody," he says firmly, although the urge to go outside and talk to her is a little overwhelming. "Absolutely nobody."

-.-.-

The rest of the date is kind of picture perfect.

After they spend almost two hours in Three Broomsticks talking, Molly brings him to Dogweed and Deathcap, a shop that sells a vast array of exotic plants and flowers. She informs him that Herbology is her favourite subject, and they spend ages browsing through Screaming Shrivelfigs and Fire-Breathing Flitterlooms. Then, Scorpius drags her to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, where they have fun attempting to assassinate each other with various tester joke products. Scorpius emerges with a purple face, and Molly ends up with fourteen fingers on one hand. When the sun begins to set, they head back to Hogwarts.

"Well, it's been a thoroughly unenjoyable day," Scorpius says, standing outside the Ravenclaw common room entrance after he walks her back.

"It's been awful for me too," Molly nods, smiling.

"Good to know the feeling is mutual," he grins. "How are all those extra fingers holding up?"

Molly sighs and holds up her right hand. She wiggles all fourteen fingers woefully. "It's going to take a couple more hours at least until it wears off."

His purple complexion is already fading away. "You never know, those extra fingers might come in handy," he lifts his eyebrows suggestively, and Molly makes a disgusted noise. "Well, I'll see you around, Mol," he bides her goodbye and turns around to leave.

"Wait—"

Before he can respond, Molly tip-toes and quickly pecks him on the check. "Bye," she says shyly.

Scorpius pauses for a moment before speaking. "Bye," he waves, and then disappears down the darkening hallway.

-.-.-

Scorpius turns in early, but finds it almost impossible to fall asleep. He spends a couple of hours staring blankly at his bed's canopy, running through today in his head.

He eventually comes to several conclusions—

One, he likes Molly. He really does. But… he's not sure if he likes her enough.

Two, he might still be in love with Rose Weasley. Really, after years of being in denial about her, he's kind of tired of refusing to admit what he feels.

Three, if he continues seeing Molly, but somehow manages to fuck up along the way by hurting her, Scorpius would never forgive himself.

(Yeah, okay, he cares about Molly. Just a little bit.)

So basically he's totally fucked.

-.-.-

He's still wide awake when he hears the sound of Albus wearily dragging himself to bed in the dark.

"Alright, mate?" Scorpius whispers loudly.

"Yeah. Absolutely knackered. Two foot long essay. Remind me why the fuck I'm taking Arithmancy, again?"

"Because your Aunt Hermione managed to convince your Uncle Harry that it would be useful to you in the future."

"Right," Albus's bedsprings creak noisily as he collapses on his mattress. "Kill me."

Scorpius decides he's going to just come right out and say it. "Al. I went out on a date with Molly today."

The bedsprings creak again. "You _what_?"

"Molly. I went on a date with her today," he repeats, nervously anticipating Albus's reaction.

Albus pauses for a while. "Scorpius. _Maaaate_."

"What?"

"What about Rose?"

"What about her?"

"I thought you still liked her?"

"Well," he sighs heavily. "I've got to get over her somehow, right?"

"Who asked who?"

"Molly asked. Hospital Wing. We went to Hogsmeade."

He squawks. "Scor, didn't we _just_ have a conversation about you not telling me things? And seriously? Another Weasley cousin?"

"It just happened today. I didn't tell you, because, well, to be honest I wasn't even sure if I was going to go through with it. But I did, and… it was good. Went to Three Broomsticks and everything."

"Just 'good'?"

"It was _great_ ," Scorpius amends. "Really great."

Albus is silent for several seconds. "Good on you, Scor. Really. It's—I—" Albus fumbles on his words. "I'm, you know, happy for you. That you're moving on. And all that."

Scorpius can't help but guffaw. Albus has always been hopeless at expressing his feelings verbally.

"Oh, shut the fuck up," Albus snorts with laughter too. "You know what I mean. I—I hope this works out for you."

"Me too," Scorpius says fervently.

(Albus has no idea just how much he wants this to work out.)

"By the way, I should probably remind you that you've got detention tomorrow with McGonagall. And Toby. In case you forgot."

( _Fuck._ )

-.-.-

The thought of detention puts him in a monstrously sour mood the next day. It's not that it's detention—Merlin knows he's had his fair share of detentions across the span of nearly seven years—but because Scorpius is going to be forced to be in the same room as Toby. For three hours. _For the next two weeks_.

(Circe give him the strength to make it through.)

At precisely eight at night, after he gloomily eats his dinner, Scorpius drags his feet to the Potions dungeons. When he arrives, a white haired Argus Filch is already there waiting for him. Toby is still nowhere to be found.

"Malfoy," Filch sneers as a greeting. Scorpius stays silent, glaring back at him. "Haven't seen you around in a while. Headmistress McGonagall told me to hand you these."

Argus picks up a dented metal bucket from the ground. It's filled with a few cleaning brushes in various states of decay. Most of the bristles are caked with black unidentifiable gunk and the handles are rotting away. Scorpius visibly recoils.

"You'll be cleaning out all the cauldrons in the classroom. _By hand_ ," Filch says with a look or pure glee on his withered face.

(Seriously, it's like he gets off of torturing students.)

"Sounds great," Scorpius says dully.

"I'll be confiscating your wand for the time being," Filch holds out his hand. Suddenly, the doors behind him creak open and Toby shuffles in. His puce red face and gritted teeth indicate that he's as happy about this as Scorpius is.

So, three hours in a dark, dingy dungeon scrubbing filthy cauldrons with only Toby for company.

(What a way to start of his week.)

-.-.-

Cleaning the cauldrons by hand is fucking _impossible_.

Never mind the fact that these cleaning brushes likely hadn't been replaced ever since the Hogwarts founders were alive — the remnants of whatever potion had been inside had dried up into rock hard layers of sludge. Scorpius may as well have been using a Pygmy Puff to clean, for all the progress he was making.

_Fuck this_ , he thinks fervently, arms burning. _Fuck this fuck this fuck this._

Across the dungeon, he hears the unmistakable clatter of Toby lobbing his rotten brush against the damp stone walls. "Bloody cauldrons!" he yells.

Scorpius peers out from behind. Toby appears to have given up altogether. He sits down behind the teacher's desk instead with his arms crossed. He studiously tries not to look at Scorpius.

Well, if _he's_ not doing any work, there's no way Scorpius is going to keep at it.

The next hour or so passes by in complete and utter silence.

(Thank Merlin. If Toby had tried to open his gob, the urge to sock him one in the face would've been far too tempting.)

When they hear Filch hobbling back noisily—it's always easy to hear him, Filch has this rather strange habit of talking to an imaginary cat named Mrs. Norris—both of them spring back to their cauldrons and put up a convincing show of scrubbing. Scorpius even throws in a few brow wipes and some heavy breathing. Filch unwillingly relinquishes their wands.

"Barely made a dent!" Filch mutters under his breath, examining the pewter insides of Scorpius's cauldron. "You'll be back again tomorrow night, eh?"

"Unfortunately," he answers, shrugging on his robes. He turns around to see that Toby is already gone.

-.-.-

The hallways of Hogwarts are already deserted by the time Scorpius emerges from detention. It's almost midnight, definitely past curfew. He begins his long, arduous trek back to the Slytherin common room, trying not to think about the fact that he has to endure _thirteen more days of this_. All because of that tosser Toby.

He's in the middle of a very satisfying daydream of him pushing Toby off his broomstick fifty feet up in the air when he turns a corner and sees Rose. She's almost at the other end of the hallway but Scorpius recognizes her immediately.

It's totally fucking stupid but for a moment his mind deludes him into thinking that she came looking for him.

(Then, of course, he remembers that she's Head Girl and she's just on patrol duty.)

She hasn't spotted her yet. He's walking behind a column so there's a stripe of shadow concealing him. Rose has her hair pushed up into a messy bun, and the dark circles under her eyes imply she hadn't slept properly in weeks . She's even paler than usual and she's absent-mindedly biting her nails as she ambles along—a nervous tick of hers that Rose has never been able to kick. It almost makes him smile.

He wants to talk to her. He wants to talk to her so much it's almost aches. It's not even because Scorpius is kind of, sort of in love... it's just that Rose used to be one of his closest friends and now the distance between them is so tangible and obvious it hurts.

Maybe it's the soft silence of the night, or the emptiness of the stone hallway, but before he can stop himself, his mouth opens. "Hey, Head Girl."

(He briefly wonders if he'll regret this.)

He's talking softly but his voice carries in echoes. Rose's head jerks his way. She's silent for a while.

"Scorpius?" she returns, equally softly.

(Hearing her say his name does some really strange things to him.)

Hands in his pockets—making carefully sure to look as casual as possible—he starts to walk over. "How's it going?"

Even from far away, he can see Rose start to smile a little. She starts to walk over too. Her shiny Head Girl badge winks at him from a distance. "So… I presume we're talking again?" she asks hesitantly.

"I guess so."

"It's been a while."

"You're telling me."

"About… three months?" Rose hazards a guess.

"Feels like longer," Scorpius says, so quietly he's not even sure that Rose hears.

They meet up in the middle of the hallway. Rose stops about four feet in front of him, as if she didn't dare come any closer. His heart twists inside his chest.

Several long, _long_ seconds pass before Rose opens her mouth. His mind rapidly tries to guess the words that she will say: an apology? A goodbye? _Hey, how are you? How's it going?_

"You're breaking school rules. You're not supposed to be out after hours," Rose informs him, smiling cautiously.

Scorpius breaks out into an uncontrollable grin because _of course_.

"I had detention," he rummages in his robes for his detention slip and shows her the "8pm to 11pm in the dungeons" that Filch scratched out. "Joke's on you, Weasley."

(It's weird, talking to Rose after avoiding her for so long, but it kind of feels like Scorpius is falling back into a comfortable old routine.)

Rose laughs softly and makes a show of examining the detention slip. She comes two steps closer—close enough for Scorpius to reach out and touch her wrist. "Hmm. Story checks out," she hands it back, and Scorpius carelessly shoves it back in his pocket. "How was it?"

"Soul destroying."

"What did they make you do?"

"Scrub cauldrons by hand."

Rose's mouth drops open in shock. "That's cruel. Why on earth do you have deten— _oh,_ " all of a sudden her face falls.

"What?"

"Was this—is this for—well, you and Toby?" Rose now looks genuinely distressed.

At the mention of Toby's name, Scorpius feels himself clam up automatically. "Yeah. He laid into me pretty good."

"Listen, Scorpius, about that—I—just know that—I didn't know—" she trips over her words, something highly unusual for Rose, who prided herself on being articulate at all times. "I just feel _so_ guilty. It's all my fault, it really is."

To his alarm, Rose starts to get a little teary eyed. So, he kind of forgets that he's supposed to be, you know, avoiding her, and automatically pulls her in for a hug before she can say anything falls silent as her head falls into the hollow of his shoulder.

"Look," he says into her hair, rubbing tiny circles on the small of her back. "It's fine. It is. Toby's a prat. I'll deal with it."

He pulls away. Rose blinks up at him. "I just needed to say I'm sorry. So here it is. I'm so sorry. Truly," she says.

"Like I said, it's fine. It's only two weeks of detention. And I trust it wasn't you that set Toby on me, anyway."

Rose laughs weakly, palming at her eyes.

"Go get some sleep, Weasley," Scorpius gently nudges her towards the staircase for the seventh floor. "You look like you need some."

"Yes. These past few weeks have been rough," Rose shoots him a weak but sincere smile. "It was good to see you again, Scorpius."

"You too, Weasley."

Rose pauses for a moment. Her obligatory reply of _my name is Rose_ hovers in the air.

(Is she going to say it?)

But then she gives him a sad little wave and disappears up the stairs.

-.-.-

It should come as no surprise that later that night he spends hours tossing and turning before he falls asleep.

(Really, he should be better than this by now.)

-.-.-

In between staggering amounts of post-Christmas NEWTs homework and his detention, he doesn't see Molly at all for the next couple of days.

It's not that he doesn't want to, it's just that he literally can't find the time. His day basically consists of staggering from one class to the other, hastily eating dinner, then pretending to scrub cauldrons at night. By the time he gets back to his bed, he's exhausted. Scorpius is actually kind of grateful that his status as Seeker for Slytherin is temporarily suspended—if he had to go for Quidditch practice as well he's fairly certain he would've fallen asleep mid-flight.

It makes him feel a little guilty that he isn't seeking her out. Knowing girls, she's probably waiting for him to ask her out again. Although, Scorpius is still frustratingly unsure about what he should do next. The old him would've gone with the logic of well-she's-an-attractive-girl-that-likes-you-so-just-shag-her-and-be-done-with-it, but, you know… it's _Molly._ Scorpius may be an arsehole at times but Molly doesn't deserve that. Besides, he likes to think that he's kind of past doing shit like that now.

(Plus, a certain meeting with a certain redhead a few nights ago has kind of been occupying his mind lately.)

The next time he sees her, he's buried face-first in a dusty Astronomy textbook in the library, trying to map out Jupiter's moons. It's a Sunday night and he's hastily trying to finish up his homework before Madam Pince shoos him out to close up the library.

"You can't draw for shit," her voice says over his shoulder, and Scorpius jumps so hard he knocks over his inkwell. The loud clattering noise causes a fifth-year student to look up and tut reproachfully.

"Fuck! Stop doing that!" Scorpius quickly saves his map as the black pool of ink spreads.

Molly tries to giggle as quietly as possible, which meant she wasn't very quiet at all. "I'll take care of that. _Scourgify_!"

His table becomes spotless again. She takes a seat beside him. "So, I haven't seen you around in a while."

Scorpius runs his fingers through his hair and rubs his eyes. "Sorry about that. Just been caught up with work."

"Don't worry about it," Molly waves his apology away. "I can't even imagine the amount of stuff you have to do for NEWTs. Although, I _can_ tell you that you won't be impressing Professor Sinistra with that pathetic doodle."

Scorpius scowls. "What are you talking about? This is my best work yet! I spent ages and ages on it."

Molly shrugs, grinning. "Sorry to burst your bubble, Scor, but moons are supposed to be _spherical_ , _"_ she points to a moon that is, admittedly, slightly wobbly.

"Shut the fuck up," he swats at Molly with his parchment. "I've had class the whole day, I just got back from detention, and I haven't eaten dinner. My shit drawing skills are justified."

"You haven't eaten dinner?" she repeats. "Poor boy. Hmm. Well, library closes at ten, right? I have an idea. You ever sneak into the kitchens?"

His interest is immediately piqued. "I see what you're getting at. I used to but I haven't done it in ages."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Scorpius is already gathering up his things. "Let's do this."

-.-.-

"Do you want to do the honours?" Scorpius whispers as they crouch in the shadows of a staircase by a massive painting of fruit.

"Don't mind if I do," Molly tiptoes out and tickles the green pear. It squirms, lets out a shrill laugh, and abruptly turns into a green door handle. Scorpius opens the door as lightly as he can but it still creaks.

"After you," Scorpius gestures towards the entrance. Him and Molly barely make it two steps inside when they're immediately accosted by house elves.

"Master Malfoy! Mistress Weasley!" hundreds of squeaky voices chime in unison.

(It kind of creeps Scorpius out how they know every student's name. Seriously, do they spy on them, or something?)

All of them start to swarm over to greet them. Some even start clambering over others in an attempt to get closer. Scorpius has heard all about S.P.E.W. from Rose—apparently her mum is a big advocate for house elf rights— but he still finds house elves a little unsettling. Molly starts laughing at their enthusiasm. "A very lovely evening to all of you," she dips into a curtsey. Scorpius follows suit by going into a theatrical sweeping bow.

"So lovely of you to visit us, Mistress Weasley!" a particularly knobbly house-elf bounds up to her.

"Hoppy!" Molly leans down to give her a tight hug.

"What can we do for you?" Hoppy looks like so thrilled, Scorpius is afraid she might spontaneously combust.

"Well, I didn't have any dinner earlier so I'm a little hungry," he admits apologetically. "Would you happen to have any leftovers lying around? I'm not too fussed."

"Master Malfoy is hungry!" the house elf repeats. Another house elf also reiterates the phrase, like it's some kind of weird mantra. "Master Malfoy is hungry!"

Scorpius raises his eyebrows and shoots Molly a look. She bites her lip to suppress a laugh as the house elves grab on to the both of them and lead them to a small table smack bang in the middle of the kitchens. It's a massive stone room with, like, twenty different stoves in every corner. A worryingly tall stack of dirty plates sit in the biggest sink Scorpius has ever seen, and a fire is roaring in the hearth.

"Seriously, I don't need a full meal, just give me some leftover pie, or something—"

"Nonsense!" Hoppy pulls out a chair for Scorpius, and another elf rushes Molly over to a seat. "Hoppy is a good elf, Hoppy will make sure Master Malfoy and Mistress Weasley are well-fed!"

Literally five minutes later, the house elves have laid out a mammoth feast in front of them. Glistening turkey legs, creamy mashed potatoes, and perfect Eton Messes are just some of the things on the menu. There's also a bowl of buttered peas, flaky fish pie, and enormous charcoal-blistered sausages. Just looking at the food is making Scorpius feel like weeping from happiness.

"Best. Idea. Ever," he says, and promptly tears into his steak.

"Stick with me, kid, and you'll be fine," Molly winks as she cuts herself a slice of some quiche.

"And a few finishing touches!" Hoppy skips over with a fat red candle and a jar of flowers. She sets the jar down and lights up the candle with a snap of her bony fingers. "Hoppy will let you have your privacy, Master and Mistress."

Before Scorpius can say anything, Hoppy shoos all the rest of the house elves out through another doorway, presumably to where they all slept. Soon, it's only Scorpius, Molly, and… a romantic candlelit dinner.

"Well," he says, putting down his bite of steak. "This is uncomfortable."

Molly collapses with laughter. "Merlin! I think they all assumed we were on a date."

"What _is_ it with you and forcing me to go out on dates with you?" he rolls his eyes dramatically. "I get the hint—you want to shag me."

Molly tosses a couple of peas at him. "I'm not _that_ desperate! But, since we're here and we have all this free food… might as well make it a date," she looks across the table at him, suddenly cautious. "Sorry, am I crossing the line? I don't want to make things awkward."

(For a moment, Scorpius is unsure if he would've asked Molly out on a second date. But then he thinks, yeah, why wouldn't he? Hogsmeade was brilliant. No reason not to.)

"It's a date," he agrees, and Molly smiles widely.

-.-.-

Detention starts to follow a predictable pattern – Scorpius and Toby show up, not speaking to each other. Scorpius and Toby pretend to scrub the cauldrons until Filch leaves, not speaking to each other. Scorpius and Toby throw aside their brushes, not speaking to each other. Then, Scorpius and Toby sit around the dungeon for two hours—yes, you've guessed it—not speaking to each other. It's the most mind-numbingly boring three hours of his life, but he'd sooner take that over possible interaction with Toby.

So, you can imagine Scorpius's surprise when Toby finally opens his mouth after ten straight nights of utter silence. It makes him jump at first, the sound of Toby's voice in the echoey caverns of the dungeon.

"It's all your fault."

Now _that_ he wasn't expecting.

"Sorry?" he says politely, turning around to look at him. Scorpius is sitting in the front of the classroom with his legs kicked up on a desk, and Toby is a few rows behind him.

Toby looks as though he's having some deep internal struggle. It's as though he's having some inner debate with himself. Finally, he explodes.

"I said, _it's all your bloody fault_ ," Toby hisses. His voice reverberates off the walls.

Scorpius sighs exaggeratedly. "Oh, Toby. Are we really doing this again?"

(The truth? He'd been expecting something like this to happen.)

Toby slams his fists down on his desk and stands up so quickly his chair keels over. Toby is typically a rather non-violent person—well, before he smashed Scorpius's face in at the Quidditch pitch, anyway—so seeing him so worked up was absolutely hilarious. Scorpius starts grinning from ear to ear. Finally, something to liven things up.

"None of this would've happened if it weren't for you," Toby takes several long strides over to stand in front of Scorpius, seething.

(He's guessing Toby doesn't really appreciate him grinning. Shame, really, he has an admittedly rather lovely smile.)

"I didn't _tell_ you to beat me up, now did I?" Scorpius asks sardonically. "Pain isn't really my thing."

"That's not what I'm talking about! You _know_ what I'm talking about!" Toby raises his voice. His fists are clenched at his side.

Scorpius raises a blond eyebrow because, well, he honestly has no idea what Toby is banging on about.

(And also because he's been told raising his eyebrow makes him look like an insolent tosser.)

Apparently the eyebrow raise is the last straw for Toby, because the next thing he knows, he grabs him by the collar and lifts him a few inches off the ground before he can react.

"Get the fuck _off_ me!" Scorpius twists in his grip and shoves Toby away. He stumbles backwards into a dirty cauldron. "Seriously, what the _fuck_ is your problem?"

" _You_ are!" he yells shrilly. His brown hair is all messed up and red splotches start to appear all over his face.

Scorpius is genuinely baffled. "But I haven't done shit!"

For a moment it seems like Toby is about to do something drastic. Scorpius is ready to fend off any possible physical attacks, but then Toby suddenly grits his teeth and walks away to his own corner of the dungeon. "You know what? You're not worth it," he says, sitting back down at the teacher's desk. His chest is still heaving with fury.

(Okay, what just happened?)

-.-.-

"I'm telling you, mate, Toby's a total nutter, _"_ Scorpius concludes his story.

Albus and Caitlyn both sit there with their jaws dropping. "I don't believe you," Albus says. All three of them are at the Slytherin table during breakfast the next day.

He sighs and throws his hands up in the air. "Why would I make this up?"

Albus start spluttering. "Because! That's—that's so unlike Toby. I mean, I literally just saw him in the common room. He said hi to me and everything. Seemed perfectly friendly. It's like—it's like saying Professor McGonagall hit on you, or something."

Scorpius grabs a piece of toast and slathers some butter on. "You're forgetting one key difference between you and me – you and Toby are still _friends_. Toby just hates my guts. Don't get me wrong—" he takes a generous bite and continues, "—the feeling is mutual, but at least I don't go around assaulting people."

"You said it was unprovoked, right?" Caitlyn pours some Tarantula Treaties into a bowl. A few of the mini chocolate spiders start scuttling out of the bowl, trying to escape. She nonchalantly grabs a pitcher of milk and drowns them into submission.

Scorpius pulls a face. "I've never understood how people can eat those. And yes, it was unprovoked."

"You didn't say anything beforehand?" she presses.

He glares at them both. "Why immediately assume it had to be me that started it?"

Albus snorts with laughter and holds his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Sorry, sorry. Just double checking."

Caitlyn has a strangely unreadable expression on her face. "Hmm," is all she says. Without warning, she abandons her Tarantula Treaties and stands up. "Sorry, guys, I think I need to go back to the Gryffindor table for a bit."

She leaves before either one of them can answer. Albus looks absolutely bewildered and he looks at Scorpius questioningly. He shrugs, "Don't ask me."

He finishes off his toast and starts on a croissant. "Only a couple more days of detention left so I won't have to deal with the git anymore."

At that moment, a flurry of owls swoop inside the Great Hall, their hoots breaking through the din of a thousand hungry students trying to gulp down breakfast as quickly as possible before their first lesson. Two owls flutter over with an identical pink letter in their beaks.

"Ooh, mail!" Albus excitedly rips his envelope, completely forgetting about their conversation. Scorpius tears his own open, and pulls out a heavily perfumed card with the words _You are invited to celebrate the marriage of Theodore Remus Lupin and Victoire Gabrielle Weasley_ embossed on it.

"Oh, yeah!" Scorpius says, pleasantly surprised. He opens the card. "I almost forgot they were getting married—"

Two tiny white doves zip out of the card and fly into his face. "Aaaargh!"

Albus sees Scorpius's doves, but he's already halfway through opening his own card so another two doves appear and start flapping around his face too. It's chaos for a couple of seconds until four of the doves finally soar away, hooting.

"What the fuck!" Albus yells. Scorpius collapses with laughter because his face? Absolutely hilarious. He sees other members of the Weasley-Potter clan around the Great Hall struggle with the stupid doves too. One of Hugo Weasley's doves gets stuck in a jar of peanut butter, Lily Potter is screaming bloody murder and trying to bat them away by pelting them with bananas, and the Scamander twins are (of course) chasing them down gleefully, yelling something about Yellow-Bellied Plimpies.

He automatically seeks Rose out from across the room. She's sitting where she always sits, smack bang in the middle of the table. Caitlyn is right beside her, and they're both laughing about some feathers stuck in her red hair.

(He looks away because something in his chest twists whenever he sees Rose smile.)

-.-.-

This is how Scorpius and Molly kiss for the first time—

He takes her to a Quidditch game between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. The Quidditch stands are only half full, because it's nearly February and it's fucking _freezing_.

They're sitting in a section of relatively empty seats, right behind the Hufflepuff hoops. It starts off as a bet.

"So who do you think is going to win?"

"Ravenclaw, duh," Molly says, like it's a ridiculous question. She's all decked out in Ravenclaw gear—everything from a Ravenclaw flag to Ravenclaw socks.

Scorpius scratches his chin. "I dunno, Hufflepuff have been surprising me this year. I think it's their new captain, Keith what's-his-face."

"As if!" Molly snorts. "Ravenclaw will win, for sure. Hands down. I _bet_ you they'll win."

Half an hour later, the Hufflepuff team is doing victory laps around the pitch, whooping. Molly looks as though somebody just killed her puppy.

"Told you," Scorpius grins. "So what do I win?"

"Nothing! The game was clearly rigged," Molly cries shrilly. "Did you see that Patil girl? That shove was such a foul."

"Suck it up."

"Fine. You win this—" she leans over and kisses him. He stares at her for a couple of seconds after she pulls away.

"That's it?"

Molly hits him, letting out a peal of laughter. "I hate you!"

"Now _this_ would be a prize," Scorpius pulls her back in. They end up snogging on the Quidditch stands for the next thirty minutes, long after the pitch has cleared out.

(Yeah, he knows, he knows. But Scorpius is tired of feeling miserable all the time. Kissing Molly helps with that.)

(Also, well, she's pretty good at it.)

-.-.-

After that, Scorpius and Molly _kind of_ start going out.

The words "girlfriend" and "boyfriend" haven't been used by either one of them yet, but they start seeing each other pretty often—after class, during lunch, in between lessons. It's not like they're, you know, holding hands in the corridors, sending love letters to each other, or any of that disgusting shit. Yet, it's probably the most serious Scorpius has ever been with a girl ever. Sure, he's had his fair share of flings—or more accurately, shag buddies—but this is sort of different.

(Plus, being around Molly takes his mind off Rose a little.)

Of course, the first person he tells is Albus. They're both in Transfiguration and Albus is in the middle of trying to figure out how to turn a teapot into a turtle when Scorpius just blurts out: "I'm kind of seeing Molly."

Albus looks up from his textbook, his wand tucked behind his ear. He seems shocked. "Wow. So… you really like her?"

(Now _that's_ a pretty loaded question.)

"I think so."

"You think so?" Albus repeats.

"It's a bit too early to tell, to be honest. But she's pretty awesome."

Albus seems to decide that this is enough. "Merlin, you and little Molly. Who would've thought?"

"Well, little Molly's not so little anymore, if you know what I— _ouch!_ Okay, fuck, I'm sorry!"

-.-.-

Scorpius practically skips to his last day of detention. His two weeks of detention are almost up and he couldn't be happier. He's finally found a solution for cleaning the cauldrons—both him and Toby have secretly wised up and brought another wand in with them. Scorpius usually just takes Albus's. So, when Filch confiscates a wand at the beginning of detention, Scorpius simply hands Albus's over, keeps his own up his robe sleeve, and Scourgifies all of the cauldrons in five seconds.

(He's a little bit of a genius.)

By the time Filch comes in to reluctantly return their wands, Scorpius wants to shout with joy. But before he can sprint out of the room, Toby shoves past and grunts, "I'll never forgive you."

(He's given up trying to understand the inner workings of Toby's mind.)

-.-.-

This week for Potions, Professor Slughorn announces that they're going to be brewing Amortentia. The whole class gets excited—it's not often Slughorn assigns them some of the more daunting potions, let alone a powerful Love Potion.

Scorpius has always been pretty decent at Potions. By the time he's at the penultimate step, his brew is already taking on Amortentia's distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen. Albus, however, is struggling quite a bit. His cauldron is filled with fiery red sludge.

The rest of the class isn't faring any better—behind him, Fred Weasley's potion seems to have simply vanished into thin air.

"Ah, Miss Weasley, absolutely beautiful colour!" Slughorn parades through the desks, examining cauldrons. "Mr. Dolohov—remember, only _five_ drops of rose oil. Oh, Mr. Malfoy! Excellent job. Time to add your belladonna seeds, and remember students, this is when you'll start to smell the things you find most attractive."

"What do you think yours will smell like?" Albus asks him, huffing and puffing from the effort of dragging his spoon through his cauldron of slop.

"Probably bacon."

Scorpius carefully stirs in some large belladonna seeds and steam begins to rise in lazy, seductive spirals. He leans in, trying to identify some of the smells. "I can smell… something woody. Kind of like a broomstick handle. Yeah, that's it. And, um, pancakes! Fuck, it smells bloody delicious. And—"

He smells something flowery and sweet, a scent he's able to immediately recognize as Rose Weasley's hair.

"—and—and—er, parchment," he lies lamely.

" _Parchment_?" Albus sniggers. "When did you become such a swot?"

Scorpius quickly ladles out some of the Amortentia to fill up a glass vial and Vanishes the rest.

(Stupid potion. As if he needs reminding.)

-.-.-

He's sitting down in an armchair alone in the Slytherin common room late one night, trying to read _Basic Hexes for the Busy and Vexed_ for an assignment, when Molly Weasley creeps through the entrance, looking extremely pleased with herself.

For a moment Scorpius is happy to see her, then he realizes that Molly isn't even from Slytherin.

"Okay, how the fuck did you get in?"

Molly cackles and bounds over. "I guessed the password."

Scorpius abandons his book and looks at her in astonishment. " _How_? _"_

"It was 'pureblood'. You Slytherins are so predictable," she scoffs, sinking down into the armchair beside him. Scorpius is already grinning when he shifts to make some room for her. She drapes her legs over his and lays her head on his shoulder. The crackling hearth allows for some illumination in the dark common room, so Scorpius can see that she's in her pyjamas with no makeup on.

"I guess it's time for somebody to change the password," he sighs.

"Trying to keep me out?" she jabs his shoulder.

"Now, why would I do that?" Scorpius grins and leans down to kiss her. Molly wraps her arms around his neck eagerly and no further words are spoken.

(Somehow the Amortentia incident keeps lurking at the back of his mind. )

-.-.-

Sometimes Scorpius thinks the universe is just trying to fuck with him.

Professor Hagrid is having one of those "inter-house partner for class" weeks, and because Slytherin always has Care of Magical Creatures with Gryffindor, Scorpius is paired up with none other than Rose Weasley.

When her name gets read out after his, it takes a while to register. When it eventually sinks in, he just _has_ to laugh. He spent years being jealous of Rose and Toby being partners in lessons, so he supposes the irony couldn't be more perfect.

Everybody else is already moving across the field to pair up with their partners, so Scorpius unfreezes and gathers up all his things. Albus taps him on the shoulder and mouths "holy shit" as he walks past.

(He should really stop telling Albus everything. Yeah, he's his best mate but he's about as subtle as a flying brick.)

He finds Rose standing near Hagrid's pumpkin patch. She's bundled up in just about everything—scarves, gloves, hat—even though it's almost March and the weather is already starting to mellow out. She's looking around nervously, trying to spot him amongst the shuffling students. When she does, she waves sheepishly. The dark circles and pale complexion he noticed a while back are still there.

"Hello, Scorpius," Rose greets.

(He hates how _careful_ she is around him now, like she doesn't know what to say or how to act.)

"I promise you that I won't fuck our assignment up," he drops his bag down on the ground.

"What?"

"Come now, Weasley. Remember all those times you complained to me every time you had a shit partner in class?"

She laughs loudly. "You still remember?"

"'Course. I remember poor old Hector MacMillan—remember back in third year when you told on him to Professor Longbottom because he was too lazy so he flunked the entire project?"

"In my defense, he literally made me do everything!" Rose says indignantly, crossing her arms. "As long as you pull your weight, you'll be an excellent partner."

"I'm not sure I can live up to your standards, Weasley," Scorpius grins. "I've heard the rumours—you're quite hard to impress."

"Don't believe everything you hear," she's already smiling up at him.

It's definitely not the same as it used to be, him and her. He's not sure if they'll ever be as close anymore. But Scorpius thinks it just might be possible for them to be friends again.

-.-.-

Professor Hagrid's assignment is to spend three weeks of taking care of a Moke, a two-foot long silvery green lizard that can shrink at will. Scorpius and Rose's Moke sits at the bottom of their crate, glaring beadily at them.

"Now," he tells the class gruffly. "These Mokes may look scary, but s'long as yeh follow my instructions, yeh probably not goin' ter be injured too much."

" _Probably_?" a student at the front repeats shrilly.

Hagrid chuckles. "Like I said, jus' follow my instructions. A Moke's bite can really sting yeh."

They spend the rest of the lesson learning how to pick the Moke up, so as not to aggravate it too much. Hagrid passes them all chips of oak bark to feed it.

"So, shall I start?" Rose opens the bag and plucks one out. It's about an hour into the lesson and the both of them have sort of relaxed around each other now.

"Slowly," Scorpius gently proffers the Moke, taking care not to jostle it too much. Their Moke—whom they affectionately nicknamed Rob—pokes its slithery purple tongue out, looking around nervously with red eyes. Scorpius uses a gloved hand to run a finger down its spine, like Hagrid had told them too. The effect is immediate—Rob slumps over in his palm and turns over on its belly.

"So," Rose begins, as she nudges a piece of oak into Rob's teethed mouth. "I heard—I heard about you and Molly."

Scorpius looks up at her, and she looks back nervously. Suddenly, the casual air of before disappears and is replaced by tension.

(He supposes this would've come up sooner or later.)

"Um. Yeah," is all Scorpius can say.

"Are—erm—are you two dating each other?"

He doesn't know if "dating" is the right word, but he cautiously nods anyway. "Sort of. Only just started, though."

"I see," she looks away and pokes another piece in after Rob guzzles the first. "Is it—are you happy?"

It seems like such an easy question but he has no idea what his answer is. So he goes with the most appropriate answer. "I think so. I mean—yeah. I'm happy. Molly's cool."

(He supposes she only asked him so that she could have some peace of mind. You know, Rose is in a happy relationship, Scorpius is in a happy relationship, now all the fucked-up shit that happened between them can disappear from memory.)

"Right," she moves on to a third chip, studiously not looking at him. He notices she's now biting her lip. "That's… that's excellent. I'm happy for you. I hope you two have a wonderful relationship."

Even though this is probably the most awkward conversation he's ever had, Scorpius still manages to snort at Rose's absurd formality. "Well, I'm not sure we're not going to be as in love with each other as you and Toby are, but we'll try," he says, trying not to sound sarcastic.

"Toby and I?"

Scorpius laughs, making sure he doesn't sound bitter. "Yeah, remember your boyfriend?"

"Oh. Right, well, Toby and I broke up a few months ago, so I don't think you would have any competition," she says, with a poor attempt at humour.

Scorpius feels like all the wind is knocked out of him and for a moment he can't speak. "You broke up," he repeats, mind whirling. He wants to hit himself for being so stupid. _Of course_ they broke up. He hasn't seen them together in the same room for ages, and they're usually joined at the hip. " _Why_?"

Rose pushes her hair back. "Long story short—I realized that I'd outgrown him. I sort of had this idealized version of him in my head since I was about thirteen, so when we got together I refused to acknowledge all his faults. And believe me, he had a fair few faults. So I… I broke it off."

_Took you long enough_ , Scorpius says silently.

"Also, he made me ruin my relationship with my best friend," Rose finally looks at him with a watery smile. He can see that her hands are shaking slightly. "Scorpius, no amount of apologies can justify what I did. I was so blinded I didn't see how much more important you were to me."

He doesn't know what to say. There's about a thousand different emotions bubbling around inside him right now. Part of him is absolutely ecstatic that Rose— _Rose!—_ is no longer with Toby, but another part of him wants to positively _scream_ because this conversation couldn't have happened at a worst time.

"Does this have anything to do with bloody Toby beating my face in a couple of weeks back?" he finds himself asking.

"Oh, Merlin, I'm so sorry about that," she starts wringing her hands. "I told Toby I was breaking up with him because I didn't like the way he was making me treat you, and I think he interpreted that the completely wrong way. He must've assumed I was—or that I had feelings for you, or that I was somehow cheating on him with you, but believe me, Scorpius, I had no idea he would react that way. Had I known I would've never let him do that to you. It's all my fault, it really is."

Both of them have abandoned the pretense of keeping up with Rob. In response, Rob proceeds to sit upright in his palm and let out an annoyed screech. Scorpius and Rose ignore him.

"So, I'm happy that you're happy, Scorpius. Truly I am. Especially after how _terrible_ I was to you—"

"Hey, look," Scorpius gently thumbs away a tear that's slowly making its way down her freckled cheek. "Don't apologize anymore. Seriously. I get it. And I'm—I'm not angry at you at all. That's all in the past now—"

" _Malfoy! Weasley!"_ Hagrid booms, and the both of them jerk apart as though electrocuted. "What're yeh doin'?"

Scorpius looks down to see that Rob is craftily creeping its way up his robes. "Sorry, Professor Hagrid."

"Yeh've got ten minutes left, the rest of the class're ahead of yeh."

(They spend the rest of the lesson feeding Rob the rest of the oak chips but Scorpius is so distracted he can't concentrate on anything.)

-.-.-

Scorpius is happy. He really is.

Molly's great. She's basically perfect for him. He can't actually think of a single thing he doesn't like about her.

Yet, when he goes to bed that night, all he can think about is _Rose Rose Rose_.

(He _hates_ this, hates how all his suppressed feelings have now come reeling back in full force.)

After about three hours of tossing and turning, he finally comes to a conclusion. He's not going to let this change anything. He's in a good place right now, and he's fairly certain getting involved with Rose would just mess everything up even more. It's not like Rose ever had a thing for him, anyway. All they did was snog a couple of times several years ago.

Why would he want to go through all that fucking pain again? It just isn't worth it. Rose being single doesn't make a difference. The most they would ever be is friends.

(So why the fuck can't he just forget about Rose?)

* * *

**A/N:** Almost at the end now!


End file.
